NS  22 


25  CtS. 


LOVELL’S 

WESTMINSTER 

SERIES 


Entered  at  the  Post  Office , New  York , as  second  class  matter . 

ork  While  Ye 
ave  the  Light 


TRANSLATED  FROM  THE  RUSSIAN  OF 

COUNT  LYOF  TOLSTOI 


BY 


ISSUED  WEEKLY. 


E.  J.  DILLON,  PH.D. 


NEW  YORK 

UNITED  STATES  BOOK  COMPANY, 

SUCCESSORS  TO 

JOHN  W.  LOVELL  COMPANY 

150  Worth  St.,  cor.  Mission  Place 

ANNUAL  SUBSCRIPTION,  $12.00.  OCTORER  27  1890. 


BY  SPECIAL  ARRANGEMENT  WITH  THE  AUTHORS. 


LOVELL’S 

Westminster  Series. 

1.  Her  Last  Throw.  By  the  Duchess  - - 2 5 

2.  The  Moment  After.  By  Robert  Buchanan  - 25 

3.  The  Case  of  Gen’l  Ople  and  Lady  Camper.  By 

George  Meredith  - - . . 25 

4.  The  Story  of  the  Gadsbys.  By  Rudyard 

Kipling  ....  - . 25 

5.  The  Doctor  s Secret.  By  Rita  ...  25 

6.  The  Tale  of  Chloe.  By  George  Meredith  - 25 

7.  The  Old  Courtyard.  By  Katherine  S.  Macquoid  25 

8.  Frances  Kane’s  Fortune.  By  L.  T.  Meade  - 25 

9.  Passion  the  Plaything.  By  R.  Murray  Gilchrist,  25 

10.  City  and  Suburban.  By  Florence  Warden  - 25 

11.  A Romance  of  the  Wire.  By  M.  Betham- 

Edwards 25 

12.  The  Havoc  of  a Smile.  By  L.  B.  Walford  - 25 

13.  The  Passion  Play  at  Ober-Ammergau.  By  Canon 

Farrar  , - - - . - 25 


Any  of  the  above  sent  postpaid,  on  receipt  of  price,  by  the  publishers, 

UNITED  STATES  BOOK  COMPANY, 

SUCCESSORS  TO 

JOHN  W.  LOVELL  COMPANY, 

142  TO  150  WORTH  STREET,  NEW  YORK 


Return  this  book  on  or  before  the 
Latest  Date  stamped  below. 


university  of  Illinois  Library 

1 

AUG  0 2 1! 

8 

1 

83 

1983 

WORK  WHILE  YE  HAVE  THE  LIGHT 


Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 
in  2016 


https://archive.org/details/workwhileyehavelOOtols 


WORK  WHILE  YE  HAVE 


THE  LIGHT 


TRANSLATED  FROM  THE  RUSSIAN  OF 

COUNT  LYOF  TOLSTOI 

BY 

K EL  DILLON,  Ph.D. 


c Authorised  Edition 


NEW  YORK 

UNITED  STATES  BOOK  COMPANY 

SUCCESSORS  TO 

JOHN  W.  LOVELL  COMPANY 

150  WORTH  ST.,  COR.  MISSION  PLACE 


Copyrighted  1890 
BY 

United  States  Book  Company, 


?3/.7| 

TS% 

omi 


% 

5' 

INTRODUCTION. 


A NUMBER  of  guests  were  once  gathered 
under  the  hospitable  roof  of  a rich  man, 
and  it  came  to  pass  one  day  that  their  con- 
versation took  a serious  turn,  the  theme  being 
human  life. 

They  discussed  persons  who  were  present  and 
persons  who  were  absent,  but  they  were  unable 
to  find  among  all  their  acquaintances  one  single 
man  who  was  satisfied  with  his  life.  Not  that 
any  one  of  them  had  reason  to  grumble  at 
fortune ; but  not  one  of  them  could  pretend 
to  look  upon  the  life  he  was  leading  as  one 
worthy  of  a Christian.  They  all  admitted  that 
they  were  squandering  away  their  existence  in 
a worldly  manner,  caring  only  for  themselves 


7779Q8 


6 


INTRODUCTION. 


and  tlieir  families,  taking  no  thought  of  their 
neighbor  and  still  less  of  trod. 

Such  was  the  gist  of  their  remarks  and  they 
were  singularly  unanimous  in  finding  them- 
selves guilty  of  leading  godless,  unchristian 
lives. 

“ Why,  then,  go  on  living  in  this  miserable 
way  ? ” exclaimed  a youth  who  had  taken  part 
in  the  discussion.  “ Why  continue  to  do  what 
we  ourselves  condemn?  Are  we  not  masters 
of  our  own  lives,  free  to  modify  and  change 
them  at  our  will  ? About  one  thing  we  are  all 
perfectly  clear : our  luxury,  our  effeminacy, 
our  riches;  but  more  than  all  else  our  over- 
weening pride,  and  our  consequent  isolation 
from  our  brethren,  are  hurrying  us  on  to 
irreparable  ruin.  In  order  that  we  may  become 
distinguished  and  wealthy  we  are  forced  to 
deprive  ourselves  of  all  that  which  constitutes 
the  joy  of  human  life : we  live  huddled  to- 
gether in  cities,  we  grow-  lax  and  enervated, 
undermine  our  health,  and  in  spite  of  all  our 
amusements  die  of  ennui  and  of  regret  that 
our  life  is  so  far  removed  from  what  it  should 


INTRODUCTION. 


7 


be.  Now,  why  should  we  live  so,  why  thus 
ruthlessly  blast  our  whole  life  — wantonly 
trample  upon  a priceless  boon  conferred  upon 
us  by  God  ? I,  for  one,  will  no  longer  debase 
myself  by  living  as  heretofore.  My  unfinished 
course  of  studies  I will  cast  to  the  winds,  for 
they  can  lead  me  to  nought  else  but  that 
bitterly  painful  existence  of  which  you  are  all 
now  complaining.  I will  renounce  my  estates 
and  retire  to  the  country  where  I will  spend  all 
my  time  with  the  poor.  I will  work  in  their 
midst,  will  inure  myself  to  such  manual  labor 
as  they  perform,  and  should  my  intellectual 
culture  be  needful  to  them,  I will  impart  it, 
not  through  the  medium  of  establishments 
and  books  but  directly,  living  and  working 
among  them  as  among  brothers.  Yes,”  he 
concluded,  casting  an  interrogative  glance  at 
his  father  who  stood  there  listening  to  his 
wrords,  “ I have  taken  my  decision.” 

“ Your  desire  is  .noble  at  bottom,”  said  his 
father,  “ but  it  is  the  unripe  fruit  of  an  un- 
developed brain.  To  you  everything  appears 
thus  feasible  because  you  have  not  yet  tasted 


8 


INTRODUCTION. 


life.  What  would  become  of  us  and  the  world 
at  large  if  we  were  to  pursue  everything  that 
seemed  good  and  desirable ! The  realization 
of  all  these  desirable  things  is  generally  very 
difficult  and  complicated.  It  is  no  easy  matter 
to  make  headway  even  along  a smooth  and 
well-beaten  track,  but  how  hard  must  it  not  be 
when  we  have  to  set  to  work  to  make  new 
roads  of  our  own  ! Such  a task  is  only  for 
those  members  of  the  community  who  have 
grown  perfectly  mature  and  have  assimilated 
the  highest  and  best  that  is  accessible  to  man. 
To  you  the  ordering  of  life  upon  wholly  new 
lines  seems  but  child’s  play,  because  life  to  you 
is  still  a sealed  book.  This  is  the  outcome  of 
the  thoughtlessness  and  pride  of  youth.  Hence 
it  is  that  we  sedate  people,  older  in  years  and 
wiser  in  knowledge,  are  indispensable  in  order 
to  moderate  your  fiery  outbursts  and  give  you 
the  benefit  of  our  experience,  while  it  is  your 
duty  to  submit  to  us  and  be  guided  by  our 
riper  wisdom.  Yours  will  be  a life  of  activity 
in  future  years  ; at  present  you  are  in  a period 
of  growth  and  development.  Wait  till  your 


INTRODUCTION. 


9 


education  is  completed,  finish  your  studies, 
develop  your  faculties  to  their  fullest  capacity, 
stand  on  your  own  legs,  form  your  own  con- 
victions and  then  adopt  the  new  life  you  have 
been  sketching  for  us,  if  you  feel  that  you 
possess  the  needful  strength.  For  the  present 
you  are  only  expected  to  obey  those  who  are 
guiding  you  for  your  own  good  and  you  are 
not  called  upon  to  remodel  human  life  upon  a 
new  basis.” 

The  young  man  remained  silent  and  his 
elders  agreed  that  his  father’s  advice  was 
sound. 

“ You  are  perfectly  right,”  cried  a middle- 
aged  married  man,  addressing  his  remarks  to 
the  last  speaker.  “ No  doubt  our  young  friend 
here,  utterly  devoid  as  he  is  of  experience,  may 
easily  go  astray  in  his  gropings  after  new  ways 
in  the  labyrinth  of  life ; nor  can  his  resolve  he 
seriously  regarded  as  steadfast.  At  the  same 
time,  however,  we  are  all  agreed  that  the  lives 
we  are  leading  run  counter  to  the  promptings 
of  our  consciences  and  are  productive  of  no 
good  results  to  ourselves.  Hence  we  cannot 


10 


INTRODUCTION. 


but  look  with  favor  on  the  desire  to  effect  a 
thorough  change  in  our  manner  of  living. 
Our  young  friend  may,  likely  enough,  mistake 
his  own  fancy  for  a logical  conclusion  worked 
out  by  his  reason,  but  I am  no  longer  a young 
man  and  I will  tell  you  what  I think  and  feel 
on  the  subject. 

“ Following  attentively  the  discussion  that 
has  been  going  on  here  this  evening,  the  self- 
same thought  that  occurred  to  him  suggested 
itself  to  me.  Personally  I have  not  the  shadow 
of  a doubt  that  the  life  I am  leading  cannot 
possibly  confer  upon  me  happiness  or  peace  of 
conscience.  Reason  and  experience  alike  urge 
this  truth  upon  me.  What,  then,  am  I waiting 
for  ? From  morning  to  night  I toil  and  moil 
for  my  family  with  the  result  that  both  they 
and  myself,  far  from  living  up  to  the  law  of 
God,  are  sinking  deeper  day  by  day  in  the 
slough  of  sin.  You  work  hard  for  your  family, 
but  in  the  long  run  your  family  is  not  a whit 
the  better  for  your  labor,  because  your  efforts 
are  not  a real  benefit  to  it.  Hence  I often  ask 
myself  whether  it  would  not  be  much  better  if 


INTRODUCTION. 


11 


I were  to  change  my  life  completely  and  realize 
the  ideas  which  our  young  friend  has  so  clearly 
set  before  us,  taking  no  thought  of  my  wife 
or  children  but  caring  only  for  the  soul.  It  is 
not  without  reason  that  Paul  says : ' He  that  is 
married  careth  for  the  things  that  are  of  the 
world,  how  he  may  please  his  wife.  . . He 
that  is  unmarried  careth  for  the  things  that 
belong  to  the  Lord,  how  he  may  please  the 
Lord.’  ” 

Almost  before  the  speaker  could  recite  this 
short  text  to  the  end,  all  the  women  present, 
his  own  wife  among  the  number,  indignantly 
protested. 

“ You  should  have  thought  of  this  long 
before,”  exclaimed  an  elderly  lady  who  had 
been  attentively  listening.  “ You  have  made 
your  bed  and  must  lie  on  it  now.  It  would 
be  a truly  pretty  state  of  things,  in  which 
every  one  who  found  it  difficult  to  maintain  his 
wife  and  family  might  shirk  his  duty  by 
merely  signifying  a wish  to  save  his  soul. 
This  is  but  fraud  and  baseness.  A man  ought 
to  be  able  to  lead  a good,  upright  life  in  the 


12 


INTRODUCTION. 


bosom  of  his  family  ; to  save  ourselves  alone 
needs  no  great  art ; nay,  more,  it  is  even  con- 
trary to  Christ’s  teaching.  God  commands  us 
to  love  others,  and  here  are  you  wanting  to 
injure  others  for  God’s  sake  ! The  truth  is 
that  a married  man  has  certain  well-defined 
duties  and  obligations  and  he  should  not  neg- 
lect them.  It  is  quite  a different  matter  when 
the  family  is  already  cared  for,  brought  up, 
and  all  its  members  put  standing  on  their  own 
legs.  Then  you  may  do  as  you  like  for  your- 
self. But  surely  no  one  has  a right  to  break 
up  his  family.” 

To  this  the  married  man  did  not  assent. 
“ It  is  not  my  purpose,”  he  replied,  “ to  aban- 
don my  family.  I merely  contend  that  it  is 
my  duty  to  bring  up  my  family,  my  children, 
in  an  unworldly  manner,  not  accustoming  them 
to  live  for  their  own  pleasures,  but,  as  was 
suggested  a few  moments  ago,  inuring  them 
to  want,  to  work,  teaching  them  to  give  a help- 
ing hand  to  their  fellows  and  above  all  to  treat 
all  men  as  brothers.  And  to  this  end  it  is  indis- 
pensable to  renounce  distinction  and  riches.” 


INTRODUCTION. 


13 


“It  is  quite  absurd  for  you  to  go  talking 
about  breaking  in  others  to  the  new  life  while 
you  yourself  are  further  from  it  than  any  of 
us,”  exclaimed  his  wife  with  much  warmth. 
“You  have  always  lived  in  the  lap  of  luxury 
from  your  childhood  upwards  and  why  should 
you  now  wish  to  torture  your  wife  and  children  ? 
Let  them  grow  up  in  peace  and  t^uiet  and  then 
leave  them  to  undertake  for  themselves  what- 
ever line  of  life  commends  itself  to  them ; but 
don’t  you  go  compelling  them  to  embrace  this 
way  of  living  or  that.” 

To  this  the  married  man  made  no  reply,  but 
an  aged  man  sitting  near  him  delivered  himself 
as  follows  : “ It  is  quite  true,  no  doubt,  that  a 
married  man  who  has  accustomed  his  wife  and 
children  to  ease  and  comfort  should  not  de- 
prive them  of  it  all  of  a sudden.  There  is  also 
great  force  in  the  argument  that  once  the 
education  of  the  children  has  been  begun  on 
certain  lines,  it  is  much  better  to  continue  and 
complete  it,  than  to  break  it  off  to  commence 
something  else ; especially  as  the  children 
themselves,  when  grown  up,  will  not  fail  to 


14 


INTRODUCTION. 


choose  the  way  that  is  best  for  them.  I am 
therefore  of  opinion  that  it  is  difficult  — nay, 
and  sinful,  too  — for  a married  man  to  change 
his  life.  It  is  quite  a different  matter  with  us 
old  men,  whom  God  himself,  so  to  say,  has 
commanded  to  do  so.  I may,  perhaps,  be 
allowed  to  speak  for  myself  : I live  practically 
without  any  duties  or  obligations  whatever  ; I 
live,  if  the  truth  must  be  told,  solely  for  my 
belly.  I eat,  drink,  rest  myself,  and  am  myself 
disgusted  and  sick  of  it  all.  Now,  for  me,  it  is 
surely  high  time  to  abandon  this  wretched  life, 
to  distribute  my  earthly  goods  and  to  live, 
now,  at  least,  on  the  eve  of  my  death,  as  God 
ordained  that  Christians  should  live.” 

But  even  the  old  man  found  no  support. 
His  niece  was  present,  and  his  godchild,  all  of 
whose  children  he  had  held  at  the  baptismal 
font  and  gratified  with  presents  on  holidays 
ever  since,  and  also  his  own  son.  They  one 
and  all  objected. 

“ No,  no,”  said  his  son.  “ You  have  worked 
quite  hard  enough  in  your  time  and  it  is  meet 
that  you  should  now  rest  and  not  kill  yourself 


INTRODUCTION. 


15 


outright.  You  have  lived  for  sixty  years  with 
your  tastes  and  habits  and  it  is  not  at  this  time 
of  day  that  you  can  think  of  giving  them  up. 
The  outcome  of  any  such  attempt  on  your  part 
would  be  that  you  would  subject  yourself  to 
great  torture  with  no  result  whatever.” 

“ Quite  so,”  chimed  in  his  niece  ; “ and  when 
you  are  in  want,  you  know,  you  will  be  out  of 
sorts  and  always  grumbling  and  consequently 
Avill  be  sinning  more  grievously  than  ever 
before.  Besides,  God  is  merciful  and  pardons 
all  sinners,  not  to  speak  of  such  a dear,  good 
uncle  as  yourself.” 

“ Yes,  and  why  should  we  stir  in  this  matter 
at  all  ? ” asked  another  old  man  of  the  same 
age  as  the  uncle.  “ You  and  I have  perhaps 
two  days  more  to  live.  Why  fritter  them 
away  in  making  plans  and  projects  ? ” 

“ How  extraordinary ! ” cried  one  of  the 
guests.  (He  had  uttered  no  word  during  the 
entire  discussion.)  “ How  incomprehensible  ! 
We  are  all  agreed  that  we  should  live  in 
accordance  with  God’s  law  and  that  we  are 
actually  living  badly,  sinfully,  and  are  suffer- 


16 


INTRODUCTION. 


ing  in  body  and  in  soul  in  consequence,  and 
yet  no  sooner  is  it  a question  of  putting  our 
conclusions  in  practice  than  we  discover  that 
children  should  be  exempted  — they,  forsooth, 
are  not  to  be  disciplined  in  the  new  life,  but 
educated  on  the  old  lines.  Then  young  men 
should  not  go  against  the  will  of  their  parents, 
and  so  instead  of  embracing  the  new  ideas 
should  make  the  best  of  the  old.  Married  men, 
again,  have  no  right  to  discipline  their  wives 
and  children  and  inure  them  to  the  new  way  of 
living  — and  so  they,  too,  should  live  the  sinful 
life  of  the  past.  As  for  old  men,  it  is  too  late 
for  them  to  begin  ; they  are  not  accustomed  to 
the  hardships  of  the  new  life,  and,  besides,  they 
have  only  two  or  three  days  left  to  live. 

“ It  appears,  therefore,  that  no  one  should 
lead  a good,  upright,  spiritual  life,  — the  utmost 
people  may  do  is  to  discourse  about  it.” 


WORK  WHILE  YE  HA  YE 
THE  LIGHT. 


CHAPTER  I. 

TT  happened  in  the  reign  of  the  Roman  Em- 
1 peror  Trajan,  one  hundred  years  after  the 
birth  of  Christ.  The  disciples  of  Christ’s  dis- 
ciples were  still  in  the  flesh  and  the  Christians 
of  that  day  held  fast  to  the  law  of  the  Master, 
as  the  author  of  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles  tells 
us  : u And  the  multitude  of  them  that  believed 
were  of  one  heart  and  of  one  soul : neither 
said  any  of  them  that  aught  of  the  things 
which  he  possessed  was  his  own  ; but  they  had 
all  things  in  common.  And  with  great  power 
gave  the  apostles  witness  of  the  resurrection  of 
the  Lord  Jesus  : and  great  grace  was  upon 


18 


WORK  WHILE  YE 


them  all.  Neither  was  there  any  among  them 
that  lacked  : for  as  many  as  were  possessors  of 
lands  or  houses  sold  them  and  brought  the 
prices  of  the  things  that  were  sold,  and  laid 
them  down  at  the  apostles’  feet : and  distribu- 
tion was  made  unto  every  man  according  as  he 
had  need.” 

In  those  early  years  of  Christianity  there 
lived  in  the  province  of  Cilicia  in  the  town  of 
Tarsus  a wealthy  Syrian  merchant  named  Juve- 
nal, who  dealt  in  precious  stones.  By  birth  he 
belonged  to  the  poorest  and  lowest  class  of  the 
community,  but  by  dint  of  hard  work  and  by 
the  skill  he  acquired  in  his  calling  he  accumu- 
lated considerable  riches  and  won  the  respect 
of  his  fellow  citizens.  He  had  travelled  much 
in  various  lands,  and,  although  he  possessed 
no  claims  to  be  regarded  as  learned  or  edu- 
cated, he  had  seen  and  assimilated  much, 
and  his  fellow  burghers  held  him  in  high 
esteem  for  his  sound  intellect  and  keen  sense 
of  justice.  He  professed  the  faith  of  Pagan 
Rome,  the  religion  to  which  all  respectable 
citizens  of  the  Roman  Empire  belonged ; 


HAVE  THE  LIGHT. 


19 


its  forms  and  ceremonies  began  to  be  strictly 
enforced  in  the  reign  of  the  Emperor  Augus- 
tus and  were  still  rigidly  observed  by  the 
Emperor  Trajan.  . The  province  of  Cilicia  is 
at  a considerable  distance  from  Rome  ; but  it 
was  ruled  by  a Roman  governor  and  the 
effects  of  every  wave  of  progress  and  retro- 
gression that  passed  over  Rome  were  distinctly 
felt  in  Cilicia,  whose  governors  were  ever  eager 
to  imitate  their  emperor. 

Juvenal  had  a vivid  recollection  of  the 
stories  he  had  heard,  when  a lad,  of  Nero’s  life 
and  death  ; it  was  within  his  own  memory  how 
emperor  after  emperor  had  come  to  an  un- 
timely end  ; and,  like  a shrewd  observer,  he  per- 
ceived that  there  was  nothing  sacred  either  in 
the  imperial  power  or  in  the  Roman  religion, — 
that  both  were  the  work  of  human  hands.  This 
same  native  shrewdness  of  his  served  likewise 
to  bring  home  to  his  mind  the  futility  of  rising 
up  against  the  imperial  authority,  and  the 
necessity,  for  his  own  peace  and  happiness,  of 
submitting  to  the  established  order  of  things. 
Yet,  for  all  this,  he  was  often  bewildered  by 


20 


WORK  WHILE  YE 


the  wild  disorder  of  the  life  around  him,  es- 
pecially in  Rome  itself,  whither  his  affairs  fre- 
quently took  him.  And  at  such  times  he  was 
seized  with  disquieting  doubts ; but  he  regained 
his  wonted  composure  by  reflecting  that  his 
mind  wras  too  circumscribed  to  take  in  every 
point  of  view,  too  undisciplined  to  draw  the 
right  conclusions  from  such  facts  as  he  ob- 
served. He  was  married  and  had  had  four  chil- 
dren, three  of  whom  died  young.  His  surviv- 
ing son  was  named  Julius. 

In  Julius  was  centred  all  his  love  ; he  was 
the  object  of  all  his  tender  care.  It  was  his 
special  endeavor  so  to  educate  and  train  up 
this  boy  as  to  spare  him  in  after  life  the  excru- 
ciating pains  which  he  himself  experienced 
from  his  frequent  doubts  and  perplexities 
about  the  problem  of  life. 

When  Julius  attained  his  fifteenth  year  his 
father  confided  him  to  the  care  of  a philoso- 
pher who  had  come  to  live  in  the  town  for  the 
purpose  of  taking  in  young  men  and  educat- 
ing them.  Into  the  charge  of  this  teacher  he 
gave  his  son  and  his  son’s  young  comrade  Pam- 


HAVE  THE  LIGHT. 


21 


philius,  the  son  of  a freedman  of  his  who  had 
died  some  time  previously.  The  hoys  were 
of  the  same  age,  both  of  them  handsome, 
manly  young  fellows,  and  good  friends  to 
boot. 

They  applied  themselves  vigorously  to  their 
studies  and  made  rapid  progress.  They  were 
also  both  of  them  well  conducted.  Julius 
evinced  a marked  predilection  for  letters  and 
mathematics,  while  Pamphilius’  taste  led  him 
to  pursue  the  study  of  philosophy. 

A year  before  the  completion  of  the  pre- 
scribed course  of  studies,  Pamphilius  came  into 
school  one  day  and  informed  the  master  that 
his  widowed  mother  intended  to  leave  the  city 
for  good  and  settle  with  a few  friends  in  the 
little  town  of  Daphne,  that  it  would  be  his 
duty  to  accompany  her  and  make  himself  use- 
ful to  her,  and  that  he  must,  in  consequence, 
withdraw  from  the  school  and  bring  his  studies 
thus  abruptly  to  an  end. 

The  master  was  sorry  to  lose  a pupil  who  re- 
flected such  credit  on  his  teacher,  Juvenal 
likewise  regretted  the  4eparture  of  his  son’s 


WORK  WHILE  YE 


99 


bosom  friend,  but  no  one  felt  bis  loss  so  keenly 
as  Julius.  Pampkilius,  however,  remained  deaf 
to  all  their  entreaties  that  he  should  spend 
another  year  at  school  and  finish  his  education. 
Thanking  his  friends  for  the  many  proofs  they 
had  given  him  of  their  affection,  he  bade  them 
good-by  and  departed. 

Two  years  whirled  past.  Julius  had  com- 
pleted his  course  of  studies  without  having 
once  seen  his  friend.  One  day  he  was  agreeably 
surprised  to  meet  him  on  the  street ; he  asked 
him  to  his  father’s  house,  where  he  examined 
and  cross-examined  him  as  to  where  and  how 
he  had  lived  since  they  parted.  Pamphilius 
told  him  that  he  was  still  living  with  his 
mother  in  the  same  place. 

“ We  are  not  living  alone,”  he  added.  “We 
have  manv  friends  with  us,  with  whom  we  en- 
joy  everything  in  common.” 

“ How  do  you  mean  in  common  ? ” asked 
Julius. 

“ So  that  none  of  us  looks  upon  anything  as 
his  own  property.” 

“ Why  do  you  do  that,  may  I ask  ? ” 


HAVE  THE  LIGHT . 


23 


“ Because  we  are  Christians,”  answered  Pam- 
philius. 

“ Is  it  possible  ! ” cried  Julius. 

Now  to  be  a Christian  in  those  days  meant 
about  the  same  thing  as  being  a conspirator  in 
these.  The  moment  a person  was  convicted  of 
belonging  to  the  Christian  sect  he  was  arrested, 
tried,  and,  if  he  refused  to  abjure  his  faith,  put 
to  death.  It  was  the  consciousness  of  all  this 
that  terrified  Julius  when  he  learned  that  his 
comrade  had  embraced  the  new  faith.  He  had 
heard  unutterable  horrors  attributed  to  the 
Christians. 

“ I am  told  that  Christians  butcher  little 
children  and  eat  them.  Can  it  be  that  you, 
too,  take  part  in  these  atrocities  ? ” 

“ Come  and  see  for  yourself,”  replied  Pam- 
philius.  “ We  do  nothing  out  of  the  common  ; 
we  live  in  a simple  way,  striving  to  do  nothing- 
bad.” 

“ But  how,  pray,  is  it  possible  to  get  along 
without  looking  upon  anything  as  your  own 
property  ? ” 

“We  support  ourselves.  And  if  we  labor 


24 


WORK  WHILE  YE 


in  the  service  of  our  brethren,  they  in  turn 
share  with  us  the  fruits  of  their  toil.” 

“ W ell,  hut  how  if  your  brethren  take  your 
services  and  give  you  nothing  in  return  ? ” in- 
sisted Julius. 

“We  have  no  such  persons  among  us,” 
replied  Pamphilius.  “ People  of  that  bent 
have  a taste  for  living  luxuriously,  and  it  is  not 
in  our  community  that  they  will  come  to  seek 
the  realization  of  their  desires ; our  living  is 
simple,  not  luxurious  nor  even  comfortable.” 

“ Yes;  but  there  exists  a goodly  number  of 
lazy,  idle  people  who  ask  nothing  better  than 
to  be  kept  and  fed  for  nothing.” 

“ There  certainly  are  such  persons,  and  we  re- 
ceive them  and  give  them  a hearty  welcome. 
We  lately  had  a man  of  that  description  — a 
runaway  slave.  At  first  he  led  a lazy,  good- 
for-nothing  life  ; hut  he  soon  turned  over  a new 
leaf  and  is  now  an  exemplary  brother.” 

“ W ell,  but  what  if  he  had  not  reformed  ? ” 
“ There  are  some  of  that  category,  also ; our 
elder,  Cyril,  says  that  it  is  especially  incumbent 
upon  us  to  treat  such  people  as  dearly  beloved 


HAVE  THE  LIGHT. 


25 


brethren  and  to  let  slip  no  opportunity  of  show- 
ing- them  our  love.” 

“ But  is  it  possible  to  love  rascals  ? ” 

“ It  is  wrong  not  to  love  your  fellow-men.” 

“ Tell  me,  now,  how  you  can  bring  yourselves 
to  give  every  one  whatever  it  pleases  him  to 
ask  of  you?”  inquired  Julius.  “I  know,”  he 
added,  “ that  if  my  father  were  to  give  every  one 
what  he  wants  and  asks  for,  in  a very  short 
space  of  time  he  would  be  as  poor  as  when  he 
came  into  the  world.” 

“ I cannot  say,”  Pamphilius  made  answer ; 
“ but  somehow  we  always  have  enough  to  satisfy 
our  needs.  And  if  it  should  come  to  pass  that 
we  have  nothing  to  eat  or  to  cover  our  bodies 
with,  we  ask  what  we  lack  of  others  and  they  do 
not  withhold  it.  That  happens  but  very  rarely, 
however.  For  my  part,  I have  only  once  had 
to  lie  down  at  night  without  having  had  my 
supper,  and  even  then  it  was  chiefly  because  I 
was  fairly  tired  out  that  evening  and  did  not 
feel  disposed  to  go  off  to  one  of  the  brethren 
and  ask  him  for  a meal.” 

“ W ell,  of  course,  I don’t  pretend  to  know 


26 


WORK  WHILE  YE 


how  you  manage  these  things,”  observed  Julius  ; 
“ hut  my  father  maintains  that  if  he  did  not 
look  carefully  after  his  own,  and  if  he  were  to 
give  to  all  who  came  begging,  he  would  very 
soon  be  eaten  out  of  house  and  home  and  left 
to  die  of  hunger.’ 

“We  don’t  die  of  hunger.  But  you  had 
better  come  and  see  for  yourself.  Not  only  are 
we  alive,  and  not  in  want,  but  we  have  even  a 
superfluity.” 

“ How  do  you  explain  it  ? ” 

“In  this  way.  We  all  profess  one  and  the 
same  law,  but  the  degree  of  strength  we  possess 
to  observe  it  varies  greatly ; one  man  being 
endowed  with  a much  greater  degree  of  it  than 
another.  Thus  one  person  may  have  already 
attained  to  perfection  in  the  good  life,  while 
another  may  be  still  struggling  with  the  difficul- 
ties that  are  met  with  at  the  outset.  High 
above  us  all,  Christ  stands  clearly  out  with  His 
life,  and  it  is  our  constant  endeavor  to  imitate 
Him.  In  this  we  place  our  happiness.  Some 
members  of  our  community,  like  the  elder  Cyril, 
for  instance,  and  the  woman  Pelagea,  are  farther 


HAVE  THE  LIGHT. 


27 


advanced  than  any  of  us ; others  stand  close 
behind  them,  others  again  are  still  further 
behind  — but  we  are  all  of  us  moving 
forward  in  the  same  direction,  on  the  same 
road. 

u The  pioneers  are  already  near  the  law  of 
Christ  — abrogation  of  self  — having  lost  their 
souls  in  order  to  find  them.  Men  of  this  type 
want  nothing.  They  feel  no  pity  for  them- 
selves, and  to  fulfil  Christ’s  law  they  would  glad- 
ly give  the  last  loaf,  the  last  garment  to  him  who 
asks  for  it.  There  are  others  — weaker  souls, 
who  cannot  as  yet  give  up  everything.  They 
grow  faint  and  take  pity  upon  themselves. 
They  lose  their  strength  without  their  usual 
food  or  clothing  and  so  they  cannot  yet  bring 
themselves  to  give  away  everything  demanded 
of  them. 

“ There  are  others  still  weaker  than  these  — 
persons  who  have  only  recently  entered  upon 
the  right  road.  They  still  go  on  living  as 
before  ; hoarding  up  many  things  for  their  own 
use  and  giving  alms  only  of  their  superfluity. 
Now  these  soldiers  of  the  rear  guard  afford 


28 


WORK  WHILE  YE 


material  help  ancl  support  to  those  who  are  m 
the  front  ranks. 

“ Moreover  it  should  not  be  lost  sight  of  that 
we  are  all  entangled  in  the  web  of  kinship  with 
Pagans.  One  brother  has  a father  still  living: 
who  is  an  idolater  ; he  owns  an  estate  and  he 
gives  an  allowance  to  his  son.  The  son  dis- 
tributes it  in  alms,  and  the  father  in  due  time 
forwards  more.  Another  has  a Pagan  mother 
who  commiserates  her  son  and  sends  him  help. 
In  another  case  it  is  the  children  who  are 
heathens  while  the  mother  is  a Christian.  The 
children,  anxious  to  insure  their  mother’s  com- 
fort, give  her  what  they  can  afford,  entreating 
her  not  to  distribute  it  to  others.  She  accepts 
it  out  of  love  for  them,  but  forthwith  gives  it 
away.  In  other  cases  the  wife  is  a Pagan 
and  the  husband  a Christian,  or  else  the  reverse. 

“ Thus  it  is  that  we  are  all  inextricably  en- 
tangled. Those  in  front  would  be  happy  to 
give  away  the  last  crust  of  bread,  the  last  rag 
of  clothing,  but  they  cannot,  for  what  seems  the 
last  is  always  succeeded  by  another.  It  is  in 
this  wise  that  the  weak  are  always  being 


HAVE  THE  LIGHT. 


29 


strengthened  in  the  faith,  and  the  same  state  of 
things  explains  why  it  is  that  we  are  never  with- 
out the  superfluous.” 

To  which  Julius  made  answer  as  follows  : “ If 
that  be  so,  it  is  obvious  that  you  sAverve  consid- 
erably from  the  teaching  of  Christ,  and  put 
seeming  in  the  place  of  being.  If  you  do  not 
give  away  everything,  there  is  no  difference 
Avhatever  between  you  and  us.  To  my  think- 
ing, if  you  once  set  up  to  be  a Christian,  you 
should  go  about  it  in  a thorough  fashion  and 
fulfil  every  iota  of  the  law,  distributing  every- 
thing in  alms  and  remaining  a beggar.” 

“ Truly,  that  would  be  best  of  all,”  assented 
Pamphilius  ; “ why  do  you  not  do  so  ? ” 

“ I will,  when  you  Christians  set  me  the 
example.” 

“ Oh,  we  have  no  wish  to  do  anything  for 
the  sake  of  show.  Nor  should  I advise  you  to 
come  over  to  us,  and  leave  your  own  surround- 
ings, merely  for  the  sake  of  effect.  Whatever 
we  do  is  undertaken  in  virtue  of  our  faith.” 

“ What  do  you  mean  by  the  expression,  ‘ in 
virtue  of  our  faith  ? ’ ” 


30 


WORK  WHILE  YE 


“ I mean  that  we  hold  that  escape  from  the 
evils  of  the  world,  from  death,  is  to  be  found 
only  in  life  as  Christ  understood  it.  As  to  what 
people  will  say  of  us,  it  does  not  matter  at  all. 
W e live  as  we  do,  not  in  order  to  please  people, 
but  because  we  see  therein  the  only  means  of 
obtaining  life  and  happiness.” 

“ It  is  impossible  not  to  live  for  oneself,” 
objected  Julius.  “ The  gods  have  made  it  part 
of  our  nature  that  we  should  love  ourselves 
more  dearly  than  all  others,  and  should  seek 
our  own  enjoyment.  And  this  is  precisely  what 
you  Christians  also  do.  You  have  admitted, 
yourself,  that  the  pity  which  many  of  your 
brethren  feel  is  for  themselves.  They  will  go 
on  gradually  seeking  more  and  more  keenly 
their  own  pleasures  and  in  a corresponding 
degree  throwing  aside  the  teachings  of  your 
faith,  and  in  this  they  will  be  doing  just  as  we 
do.” 

“ No  ; not  so,”  replied  Pamphilius.  “ Our 
brethren  are  travelling  on  a different  road,  and 
they  never  growr  fainter  and  weaker,  but  con- 
tinually stronger,  just  as  fire  never  goes  out 


HAVE  THE  LIGHT. 


31 


as  long  as  fuel  is  continued  to  be  heaped  upon 
it.  Such  is  the  force  of  faith.” 

“ Still  I fail  to  see  in  what  this  faith  consists  ? ” 
“ Our  faith  consists  in  this,  that  we  under- 
stand life  as  Christ  interpreted  it  for  us.” 

“ And  that  is ? ” 

“ Christ  once  related  the  following  parable  : 
Certain  husbandmen  cultivated  a vineyard 
planted  by  a householder,  for  which  they  were 
bound  to  give  him  of  the  fruit.  We  who  live 
in  the  world  are  these  husbandmen,  and  we  are 
bound  to  pay  tribute  to  God,  to  fulfil  His  will. 
But  the  people  who  lived  and  believed  with  the 
world  imagined  that  the  vineyard  was  theirs ; 
that  they  had  nothing  to  pay  for  it,  but  might 
enjoy  the  fruits  it  brought  forth,  without  more 
ado.  And  the  lord  of  the  vineyard  sent  a ser- 
vant to  collect  the  tribute,  but  they  drove  him 
away.  He  then  despatched  his  son,  but  they 
killed  him,  thinking  that  after  this  no  one 
would  ever  again  interfere  with  them.  Now, 
this  is  the  world’s  faith,  by  which  all  worldlings 
regulate  their  lives,  ignoring  the  fact  that  life 
is  given  to  be  spent  in  God.  Christ  taught  us 


82 


WORK  WHILE  YE 


that  the  faith  of  the  world  — namely,  that  it 
will  be  better  for  a man  if  he  drives  the  lord’s 
servant  and  his  son  out  of  his  garden  and 
refuses  to  pay  tribute  — is  false,  because  every 
man  must  either  pay  tribute  or  be  ejected  from 
the  vineyard.  He  taught  us  that  the  things 
which  we  term  pleasures  — eating,  drinking, 
amusements  and  the  rest  — are  not  and  cannot 
be  pleasures,  if  wre  make  them  our  aim  in  life ; 
that  they  become  joys  only  when  we  place  our 
happiness  in  something  different  : namely,  the 
fulfilment  of  God’s  will.  Then,  and  only  then, 
are  these  pleasures  experienced,  as  something 
added  to,  and  contingent  upon,  the  performance 
of  God’s  behests.  To  wish  to  enjoy  the  pleas- 
ures without  being  at  the  trouble  of  doing  God’s 
will  — to  pluck  out  the  flowers,  as  it  were,  from 
among  the  thorns  of  labor — is  as  wise  as  it  would 
be  to  gather  stalks  and  plant  them  without  the 
roots.  This  is  our  faith,  and  it  is  in  virtue  of 
it  that  we  refuse  to  go  in  search  of  an  illusion 
instead  of  the  truth.  We  know  that  the  happi- 
ness of  life  is  not  bound  up  with  its  pleasures, 
but  lies  in  the  fulfilment  of  the  will  of  God 


HAVE  THE  LIGHT. 


33 


without  our  entertaining  a thought  or  a hope  of 
any  pleasure.  And  we  live  thus,  in  consequence  ; 
and  the  longer  we  live,  the  more  clearly  we  per- 
ceive that  enjoyment  and  bliss  follow  close  upon 
the  performance  of  God’s  will,  as  the  wheels  of 
the  cart  follow  the  shaft.  Our  Master  said  : 
‘ Come  unto  me  all  ye  that  labor  and  are  heavy 
laden,  and  I will  give  you  rest.’  ’’ 

Thus  spoke  Pamphilius.  Julius  listened 
with  rapt  attention  and  his  heart  was  touched 
by  what  he  heard ; but  still  he  was  not  quite 
clear  as  to  the  significance  of  all  that  Pamphil- 
ius had  been  saying.  One  moment  he  sus- 
pected his  friend  of  attempting  to  deceive 
him ; an  instant  later,  as  he  gazed  steadily  into 
his  mild,  truthful  eyes,  he  persuaded  himself 
that  Pamphilius  was  deceiving  himself. 

Pamphilius  invited  his  friend  to  pay  him  a 
visit,  during  which  he  might  study  the  life  of 
their  community  for  himself,  and,  should  it 
please  him,  to  take  up  his  abode  with  them  for 
the  rest  of  his  days.  And  Julius  promised 
that  he  would. 

He  promised,  but  he  did  not  visit  Pamphil- 


34 


WORK  WHILE  YE 


ius ; and,  carried  away  by  the  whirl  of  the 
life  of  a large  city,  he  soon  forgot  all  about 
him.  He  seemed  to  have  an  instinctive  fear 
that  the  life  of  the  Christians  might  prove  too 
attractive  for  him  to  withstand.  He  therefore 
pictured  it  to  himself  as  an  existence  in  which 
one  had  to  renounce  all  the  bright  sides  of  life. 
And  he  could  not  prevail  upon  himself  to  give 
them  up,  because  in  them  he  centred  the  aim 
and  object  of  his  life.  He  blamed  and  con- 
demned the  Christians,  and  he  set  great  store 
by  this  condemnation ; he  was  apprehensive 
lest  he  might  some  time  or  other  cease  to 
condemn  them,  and  for  this  reason  he  availed 
himself  of  every  opportunity  that  offered,  to 
seek  for  the  seamy  side  of  Christianity.  When- 
ever and  wherever  he  came  in  contact  with 
Christians  in  the  city,  he  invariably  discovered 
some  pretext  in  their  conduct  for  censuring 
them.  When  he  saw  them  in  the  market- 
place selling  fruit  and  vegetables,  he  would  say 
to  himself  and  sometimes  to  them:  “ You 

profess  to  own  nothing  and  yet  here  you  are 
selling  products  for  money,  instead  of  giving 


HAVE  THE  LIGHT. 


35 


them  away  for  nothing  to  whoever  wants  to 
take  them.  You  are  deluding  yourselves  and 
deceiving  others.”  And  he  refused  to  listen  to 
their  arguments  by  which  they  sought  to  con- 
vince him  that  it  was  necessary  and  just  that 
they  should  sell  their  products  in  the  market 
and  not  give  them  away.  Whenever  he  saw  a 
Christian  wearing  a good,  well-made  article  of 
clothing,  he  never  failed  to  reproach  him  with 
inconsistency  for  not  having  given  it  away. 
It  was  indispensable  to  his  peace  of  mind  that 
Christians  should  be  wrong,  and,  as  they  never 
denied  that  they  were  in  fault,  they  were 
always  guilty  in  his  eyes.  He  looked  upon 
them  as  Pharisees,  deceivers,  whose  force  lay 
in  their  high-flown  phrases,  and  their  weakness 
in  action.  And  of  himself  he  remarked,  by 
way  of  contrast : “ I,  at  least,  profess  what  I 
practise,  whereas  you  say  one  thing  and  do 
another.”  And  having  persuaded  himself  that 
this  was  really  so,  he  felt  quite  reassured,  and 
continued  to  live  as  before. 


CHAPTER  II. 


By  nature  Julius  was  gifted  with  a mild, 
amiable  disposition ; but  like  most  young  men 
of  his  time  and  country  he  was  the  owner  of 
slaves  whom  he  often  punished  in  a barbarous 
manner,  either  when  they  neglected  to  carry 
out  his  commands  or  simply  when  he  himself 
was  out  of  sorts.  He  was  the  possessor  of  a 
collection  of  precious,  useless  curios  and  rich 
costumes  to  which  he  was  continually  making 
new  additions.  He  was  also  fond  of  theatres 
and  spectacles,  and  from  his  youth  upwards 
provided  himself  with  mistresses  ; and  he  often 
abandoned  himself,  in  the  society  of  his  friends, 
to  gross  excesses  in  eating  and  drinking.  In  a 
word,  his  life  glided  onwards  smoothly  and 
gayly  — as  it  seemed  to  him  ; for  he  could  not 


HAVE  THE  LIGHT 


37 


himself  survey  its  course.  It  was  made  up 
almost  exclusively  of  amusements,  and  the 
number  of  them  was  so  great  that  he  lacked 
even  the  time  to  give  the  matter  a thought. 

Two  years  passed  rapidly  away  in  this  seem- 
ingly delightful  manner  ; and  Julius  took  it 
for  granted  that  all  the  years  of  life  must 
naturally  roll  by  as  pleasantly  as  these  two. 
But  in  the  nature  of  things  this  is  an  utter 
impossibility ; for  in  a life  like  that  which 
Julius  was  leading  it  is  indispensable  to  go  on 
continually  increasing  and  intensifying  the 
amusements  in  order  to  maintain  the  pleasure 
undiminished.  If,  in  the  beginning,  he  enjoyed 
quaffing  a goblet  of  mellow  wine  in  the  com- 
pany of  a friend,  the  pleasure  cloyed  after 
several  repetitions,  and  he  soon  found  it 
necessary  to  drink  two  or  three  such  goblets 
of  still  better  wine,  in  order  to  obtain  the 
same  amount  of  enjoyment.  If  at  first  it  was 
pleasant  to  while  away  an  hour  or  two  in 
converse  with  a friend,  the  pleasure  soon  wore 
off,  and  in  order  to  spend  that  time  with  an 
equal  degree  of  satisfaction  it  soon  became 


38 


WORK  WHILE  YE 


needful  to  substitute  a female  for  a male  friend  ; 
and  later  on  even  this  failed  of  its  effect  and 
something  else  was  required.  In  time  this  new 
arrangement  likewise  proved  a failure : the 

same  friends,  even  though  they  be  female 
friends,  become  tiresome  in  the  end  and  have 
to  be  changed.  And  so  with  all  his  pastimes 
and  amusements : in  order  to  make  them  yield 
the  same  amount  of  pleasure  it  became  neces- 
sary to  increase  and  intensify  them,  to  make 
greater  demands  on  the  cooperation  of  others ; 
and  for  people  who  do  not  happen  to  be  rulers 
there  was  and  is  but  one  way  of  making  other 
people  comply  with  one’s  wishes  — namely,  by 
means  of  money.  It  was  so  with  Julius.  He 
gave  himself  up  to  pleasures  of  the  body,  and, 
not  being  a ruler,  could  not  command  others  to 
be  subservient  to  his  desires,  so  that  to  pur- 
chase their  cooperation  and  increase  his  pleas- 
ures he  needed  money. 

Now  Julius’s  father  was  a rich  man,  and  as 
he  loved  and  was  proud  of  his  only  son  he 
opened  wide  his  purse  to  gratify  his  every  whim, 
stinting  him  in  nothing.  Julius’s  life,  there- 


HAVE  THE  LIGHT . 


39 


fore,  was  that  of  rich  young  men  all  the  world 
over,  — one  of  idleness,  luxury  and  immoral 
amusements  which  have  always  been  and  will 
ever  remain  the  same : wine,  gambling  and 
light,  venal  woman. 

But  his  pleasures  continued  to  absorb  ever- 
increasing  sums  of  money,  and  his  sources  of 
income  frequently  ran  dry.  One  day  he  asked 
his  father  for  a larger  sum  than  usual.  His 
father  granted  his  request  but  reprimanded 
him  for  his  prodigality.  Julius  knew  in  his 
heart  that  he  was  guilty  and  that  the  re- 
proaches were  wrell  merited ; but  he  could  not 
bear  to  admit  his  guilt,  and  so  he  lost  his 
temper  and  was  insolent  to  his  father,  as  is 
usually  the  way  with  persons  who  know  them- 
selves to  be  in  fault  but  are  unwilling  to 
confess  it.  He  received  the  sum  he  asked  for 
and  speedily  squandered  it.  What  was  still 
worse,  he  and  a drunken  comrade  picked  a 
quarrel  with  some  man  and  killed  him.  The 
city  prefect,  informed  of  what  had  taken  place, 
had  Julius  taken  into  custody  ; but  his  father, 
after  considerable  exertions,  succeeded  in  ob- 


40 


WORK  WHILE  YE 


taining  his  pardon.  During  all  this  time, 
the  demands  on  Julius’s  purse,  in  consequence 
of  the  troubles  into  which  his  pleasures  plunged 
him,  became  greater  and  more  frequent.  He 
borrowed  a large  sum  of  a comrade,  promising 
soon  to  refund  it.  Moreover  his  mistress 
selected  this  time  of  all  others  to  demand  more 
presents  : she  had  taken  a fancy  to  a necklace 
of  pearls,  and  he  could  see  that  if  he  did  not 
humor  her  caprice  in  the  matter  she  would 
shake  him  off  and  give  him  a successor  in  the 
person  of  a wealthy  man  who  had  made  re- 
peated attempts  to  supplant  Julius.  In  his 
straits  Julius  went  to  his  mother,  told  her  that, 
come  what  would,  he  must  have  the  money, 
and  that  if  she  could  not  raise  the  sum  needed 
he  would  put  an  end  to  his  existence. 

The  circumstance  that  he  had  drifted  into 
this  embarrassing  situation  he  ascribed  wholly 
to  his  father  ; to  himself  he  took  no  share  of 
the  blame.  “ My  father,”  he  argued,  “ first 
accustomed  me  to  a life  of  luxury,  and  now 
he  turns  round  and  grudges  me  the  funds 
necessary  to  maintain  it.  If,  in  the  beginning. 


HAVE  THE  LIGHT. 


41 


lie  lxad  given  me,  without  any  reproaches,  the 
sums  he  gave  later  on,  I should  have  been  able 
to  arrange  my  life  very  comfortably,  steering 
clear  of  impecuniosity  and  want.  But,  as  he 
always  insisted  on  doling  out  his  money  in 
mites,  I never  possessed  enough  for  my  needs 
and  had  to  have  dealings  with  usurers,  who 
suck  me  as  a spider  sucks  a fly  ; and  now 
that  I lack  the  wherewithal  to  keep  up  the 
kind  of  life  to  which  I am  accustomed,  and 
which  alone  beseems  young  men  of  my  station, 
I am  ashamed  to  meet  my  friends  and  com- 
panions, and  my  father  obstinately  refuses  to 
put  himself  in  my  position  and  realize  my 
difficulties.  He  forgets  that  he,  too,  was  once 
young.  Why,  it  is  actually  he  whom  I have 
to  blame  for  everything  I am  now  enduring ; 
and  if  he  does  not  give  me  the  sum  I have 
asked  for  I will  kill  myself.  That’s  just  the 
long  and  the  short  of  it.” 

His  mother,  who  had  always  spoiled  her  son, 
straightway  went  to  her  husband.  He  sent  for 
his  son  and  bitterly  reproached  both  him  and 
his  mother.  Julius  made  insolent  replies.  His 


42 


WORK  WHILE  YE 


father  struck  him.  He  seized  his  father  by 
the  hand.  His  father  shouted  for  the  slaves 
and  ordered  them  to  bind  his  son  and  lock 
him  up. 

In  the  solitude  of  his  room  Julius  cursed 
his  father  and  his  life.  His  own  or  his  father’s 
death  suggested  itself  to  his  mind,  as  the  only 
issue  out  of  his  present  desperate  condition. 

Julius’s  mother  suffered  infinitely  more  than 
her  son.  She  did  not  pause  to  inquire  who  was 
really  to  blame  in  all  this.  She  was  possessed  by 
one  sole  sentiment  — compassion  for  her  un- 
happy child.  She  again  sought  out  her  husband 
and  implored  him  to  forgive  the  boy.  Instead 
of  listening  to  what  she  had  to  urge,  he  reviled 
her  and  accused  her  of  having  demoralized  her 
son.  She  hurled  back  his  reproaches,  and  the 
scene  ended  by  her  husband  beating  her. 
Undaunted  by  what  had  come  of  her  inter- 
cession with  her  husband,  she  yielded  again  to 
her  maternal  instinct,  which  prompted  her 
to  hurry  off  to  her  son  and  beg  him  to  ask 
his  father’s  forgiveness.  In  return  for  this 
sacrifice  on  his  part  she  promised  to  supply  him 


HAVE  THE  LIGHT. 


43 


with  the  sum  of  money  he  required,  unknown 
to  his  father.  He  assented,  and  she  then  went 
to  her  husband  and  implored  him  to  forgive 
his  son.  At  first  he  loaded  mother  and  son 
with  reproaches,  but  at  last  he  agreed  to 
pardon  his  son  on  one  condition  — that  he 
would  abandon  forever  his  dissolute  life  and 
marry  the  daughter  of  a certain  wealthy  mer- 
chant, whose  consent  he  undertook  to  obtain. 

“ He  will  receive  money  from  me  as  well  as 
a dowry  from  his  bride,”  he  added,  “ and  then 
let  him  begin  to  lead  a new,  regular  life.  If 
he  promises  to  do  my  will  in  this  matter,  I 
forgive  him.  At  present  I will  give  him  noth- 
ing, and  on  his  first  offence  I will  hand  him 
over  to  the  city  authorities.” 

Julius  accepted  the  terms  proposed  by  his 
father  and  was  set  at  liberty.  He  promised 
to  marry  as  directed,  and  to  live  a reformed 
life,  but  he  had  not  the  slightest  intention  of 
doing  either.  His  life  at  home  had  become  a 
hell  to  him.  His  father  never  spoke  to  him, 
and  was  perpetually  upbraiding  his  mother  on 
his  account.  His  mother  was  continually  in  tears. 


44 


WORK  WHILE  YE 


The  clay  following  his  release  his  mother 
sent  for  him  and  secretly  handed  him  over  the 
promised  jewels  which  she  had  abstracted  from 
her  husband.  “ Here  they  are,”  she  said ; 
“ take  them  away  and  sell  them,  but  not  here. 
Dispose  of  them  in  some  other  city  and  do 
with  the  proceeds  what  you  say  is  necessary. 
I think  I can  answer  for  their  disappearance 
remaining  undiscovered  for  some  days  at  least. 
But  if  it  should  leak  out,  I will  put  the  blame 
on  one  of  the  slaves.” 

Julius’s  heart  was  greatly  troubled  by  these 
words  of  his  mother.  He  was  horrified  at 
what  she  had  done  for  him,  and  without  taking 
or  touching  the  precious  stones  he  left  the 
house.  Why  and  whither  was  he  going?  He 
knew  not.  He  went  on  and  on,  beyond  the 
city  boundaries,  feeling  the  absolute  necessity 
of  being  alone  and  of  meditating  on  all  that 
had  happened  to  him  and  on  what  still  awaited 
him.  Leaving  the  city  behind  him,  he  en- 
tered a shady  grove  sacred  to  the  Goddess 
Diana.  Making  for  a solitary  spot  there,  he 
gave  himself  up  to  meditation.  His  first 


HAVE  THE  LIGHT. 


45 


impulse  was  to  pray  to  the  goddess  and  ask 
her  for  help.  But  he  no  longer  believed  in 
the  gods  of  the  empire,  and  knew  that  prayers 
to  them  would  prove  unavailing  and  that 
succor  from  that  quarter  was  an  impossibility. 
But  if  they  could  not  comfort  and  assist  him, 
who  could  ? It  appeared  strange  and  pre- 
posterous for  him  to  be  compelled  to  do  his 
own  thinking  in  this  matter.  Disorder  and 
darkness  reigned  in  his  heart.  And  yet  there 
was  no  other  alternative.  There  was  nothing 
for  it  but  to  appeal  to  his  own  conscience,  and 
in  the  lurid  light  it  shed  he  began  to  scruti- 
nize the  main  actions  of  his  life.  He  discov- 
ered that  they  were  had,  and  what  he  had 
never  before  suspected  — foolish.  What  made 
him  torment  himself  so  ? What  impelled  him 
to  waste  all  the  young  years  of  his  life  so 
wantonly  ? The  thoughts  that  these  questions 
suggested  had  little  to  console  him  and  much 
to  make  him  miserable.  What  enhanced  his 
suffering  more  than  all  else  was  the  feeling  of 
utter  loneliness  that  oppressed  him.  Hitherto 
he  had  had  a loving  mother,  a father  to  look 


46 


WORK  WHILE  YE 


to ; he  was  not  without  a certain  number  of 
friends.  But  now  he  was  quite  alone  in  the 
universe.  No  longer  loved  by  any  one,  he  was 
a burden  to  all.  He  had  crossed  every  one’s 
path  in  life : had  caused  his  mother  to  quarrel 
with  his  father,  and  had  scattered  to  the  winds 
the  riches  that  his  father  had  spent  the  labor 
of  a lifetime  in  slowly  accumulating ; he  had 
become  a disagreeable  and  dangerous  rival  to 
his  friends.  Was  it  so  strange,  then,  if  they 
all  longed  for  his  death,  as  he  supposed  they 

did? 

Prominent  among  the  figures  that  rose  up 
before  his  mind’s  eye  during  this  roll-call  of 
past  years  was  Pamphilius,  cordially  welcoming 
him  to  the  Christian  community  and  bidding 
him  leave  everything  and  cast  in  his  lot  with 
them.  And  the  impulse  to  do  so  grew  strong 
upon  him.  “ But  is  my  position,  then,  so 
utterly  hopeless  ? ” he  asked  himself  ; and  as  he 
again  conjured  up  the  events  of  recent  years, 
his  heart  sank  within  him  at  the  thought  that 
no  one  loved  him  more.  Father,  mother, 
friends  could  not  possibly  cherish  any  affection 


HAVE  THE  LIGHT. 


47 


for  him  ; indeed,  they  could  not  do  otherwise 
than  desire  his  death.  But  did  he  himself 
love  any  one  ? He  felt  that  he  was  attached  to 
none  of  his  friends.  They  were  all  of  them 
his  rivals  and  had  not  a throb  of  pity  for  him 
now  that  his  misfortunes  were  thick  upon 
him.  And  his  father  ? he  asked  himself.  And 
looking  into  his  heart,  to  find  the  answer  there, 
was  appalled  at  what  he  saw.  Not  only  did  he 
not  love  his  father,  but  he  actually  hated  him 
for  the  restrictions,  the  insults,  he  had  put 
upon  him.  Yes,  hate  was  the  word ; he  hated 
him  ; and,  more  than  that,  he  perceived  clearly 
that  to  his  own  happiness  his  father’s  death 
was  absolutely  indispensable. 

“ Yes,  this  is  so.  And  suppose  I knew  that 
no  one  would  ever  see  or  hear  of  it,  how  would 
1 act,  if  I had  it  in  my  power  to  take  his  life  at 
a single  blow  and  free  myself  from  his  tyr- 
anny?” And  Julius  distinctly  replied  to  him- 
self, “ I would  kill  him,”  and  he  was  horrified 
that  it  was  so.  “ And  my  mother?  ” he  asked. 
“Yes,  I pity  but  do  not  love  her.  I do  not 
care  a straw  what  becomes  of  her;  all  I do 


48 


WORK  WHILE  YE 


want  is  lier  help  . . . Why,  I am  a wild 
beast ! A wild  beast  at  bay,  hounded  down  ; 
and  the  sole  difference  between  myself  and  the 
beast  is  that  I can,  if  I so  will  it,  leave  this 
deceitful,  wicked  life.  I can  do  what  the  wild 
beast  cannot  — kill  myself.  I hate  my  father ; 
I love  no  one  — neither  mother  nor  friends. 
Perhaps  Pamphilius  alone.” 

And  he  again  reverted  to  his  friend ; calling 
to  mind  their  last  meeting,  their  conversation 
and  the  words  of  Christ  cited  by  Pamphilius : 
“ Come  unto  me  all  ye  that  labor  and  are  heavy 
laden,  and  I will  give  you  rest.”  “ Can  that 
be  true  ? ” he  asked  himself.  He  began  to  stir 
up  his  recollections  of  the  discussion  with  Pam- 
philius, and  his  memory  dwelt  with  predilection 
on  the  serene,  fearless  and  joyful  countenance 
of  his  friend,  and  he  was  filled  with  a desire 
to  see  and  hear  him  again,  and  above  all  to 
believe  what  he  had  been  told  by  him.  “ Who 
am  I after  all  ? A man  in  search  of  happiness. 
I sought  for  it  in  luxury  and  lust,  but  failed  to 
find  it  there.  And  those  who  live  as  I have 
tried  to  live  will  fail  in  like  manner.  They  are 


HAVE  THE  LIGHT. 


• 49 


all  malicious  and  are  all  of  them  suffering.  On 
the  other  hand,  there  is  one  man  who  is  always 
joyful,  because  he  is  not  in  search  of  anything. 
He  tells  me  that  there  are  many  such  as  he ; 
that  all  men  may  become  such ; that  I,  for 
one,  can,  if  I be  so  minded,  on  condition  that 
I carry  out  the  precepts  given  by  his  Master. 
Now  what  if  all  this  be  true  ? 

“ True  or  not  true,  there’s  an  attraction 
about  it  which  I cannot  withstand.  I shall  go.” 

And  repeating  this  to  himself,  Julius  passed 
out  of  the  shady  grove,  and,  determined  never 
again  to  return  home,  wended  his  way  to  the 
village  in  which  the  Christians  lived. 


CHAPTER  III. 


Julius  walked  on  briskly,  his  spirits  rising 
in  proportion  as  he  drew  nearer  the  village  and 
the  colors  grew  more  distinct  and  lifelike  in 
the  picture  he  set  before  his  mind  of  the  life 
led  by  the  Christians. 

Just  as  the  sun  was  sinking  beneath  the 
horizon,  and  he  was  about  to  take  a short  rest, 
he  met  a man  by  the  wayside,  reposing  and 
taking  his  evening  meal. 

He  was  a person  of  middle  age,  and,  to  judge 
by  externals,  of  considerable  intellectual  cult- 
ure. He  was  seated,  and  was  leisurely  eating 
olives  and  bread.  As  soon  as  he  saw  Julius 
he  said  with  a smile : “ Good  evening,  young- 
man  ; you  have  still  a long  journey  before  you. 


HAVE  THE  LIGHT. 


51 


Be  seated  and  rest  yourself  awhile.”  Julius 
thanked  him  and  sat  down  beside  him. 

“ Whither  hound,  may  I ask  ?”  he  queried. 

“ I am  going  to  the  Christians,”  replied 
Julius;  and  in  answer  to  further  questions  he 
narrated  his  whole  life  and  the  mental  process 
which  had  resulted  in  this  sudden  resolution. 

The  stranger  listened  attentively,  and  in 
silence  broken  rarely  by  such  questions  as 
seemed  necessary  to  clear  up  some  obscure 
allusion,  or  throw  light  upon  some  event  or 
opinion,  the  knowledge  of  which  had  been 
taken  for  granted.  Comment  or  opinion  he 
olfered  none.  When  at  length  Julius  brought 
his  story  to  an  end,  he  gathered  up  the  food 
that  remained  over  after  his  meal  was  done, 
adjusted  his  garments,  and  said:  “Young 

man,  do  not  carry  out  your  design ; you  have 
wandered  away  from  the  direct  road.  I know 
life  ; you  do  not.  Listen  : I shall  analyze  the 
principal  events  of  your  past  history  and  your 
reflections  upon  them  ; and  after  you  have  had 
them  presented  to  you  in  the  form  which  they 
have  assumed  in  my  mind,  you  can  take  any 


WORK  WHILE  YE 


course  that  commends  itself  to  you  as  a wise 
one.  You  are  young,  wealthy,  handsome, 
strong  — your  heart  is  a seething  whirlpool  of, 
raging  passions.  You  now  yearn  for  a quiet 
retreat,  in  which  those  passions  shall  not 
disturb  you  and  you  shall  be  spared  the 
suffering  produced  by  their  effects ; you  are 
willing,  moreover,  to  believe  that  you  will  find 
such  a haven  among  the  Christians.  Now, 
there  is  no  such  port  of  safety,  dear  young 
friend,  there  or  elsewhere  ; because  that  which 
agitates  and  torments  you  is  not  located  in 
Cilicia  or  in  Rome,  but  has  its  abode  within 
yourself.  In  the  quiet  of  a sequestered  village 
those  same  passions  will  rage  within  you  and 
convulse  you  — only  a hundred-fold  more  vio- 
lently than  before.  The  fraud  or  mistake  of 
the  Christians  (I  have  no  mind  to  judge  them) 
consists  in  their  refusal  to  recognize  human 
nature.  The  only  persons  really  capable  of 
putting  Christian  teaching  into  practice  are 
old  men,  in  whom  the  snow  and  frost  of  age 
have  quenched  the  last  embers  of  human 
passion.  A man  in  the  flower  of  his  years 


HAVE  THE  LIGHT. 


53 


and  strength,  especially  a young  man  like 
yourself,  who  has  not  yet  tasted  the  fruits  of 
life  and  does  not  even  know  his  own  mind, 
cannot  submit  to  their  law,  because  that  law  is 
founded  — not  on  human  nature  — but  on 
the  idle  imaginings  of  Christ  their  founder. 
If  you  become  one  of  them,  you  will  continue 
to  suffer  from  the  same  causes  as  before,  only 
to  a much  greater  extent.  Now  your  passions 
lure  you  out  of  the  right  road  into  devious 
paths  and  byways ; hut,  having  once  gone 
astray,  you  have  it  in  your  power  to  retrace 
your  steps  and  set  yourself  right ; and  you 
enjoy,  besides,  the  satisfaction  of  passions  set 
free  — i.e.,  the  joy  of  life.  But  living  as  a 
Christian,  and  curbing  your  passions,  so  to  say, 
by  force,  you  will  still  be  liable  to  go  astray  — 
only  more  frequently  and  irremediably  than 
before  ; and  you  will  endure,  over  and  above, 
the  undying  torment  caused  by  the  unappeased 
appetites  of  human  nature.  Let  loose  the 
pent  up  water  of  a dam,  and  it  will  moisten 
and  fructify  field  and  meadow  and  refresh  the 
beasts  that  are  grazing  thereon ; dam  it  up, 


54 


WORK  WHILE  YE 


and  it  will  delve  into  the  soil  and  flow  in  a 
thick,  muddy  stream.  It  is  even  so  with  the 
human  passions.  The  teaching  of  the  Chris- 
tians (with  the  exception  of  certain  beliefs 
with  which  they  console  and  comfort  them- 
selves and  on  which  I have  no  wish  to  dwell 
at  present),  in  so  far  as  it  affects  their  daily 
life,  may  be  summed  up  as  follows : they 
condemn  violence ; they  disapprove  of  wars 
and  courts  of  justice ; they  refuse  to  recognize 
property ; they  repudiate  the  sciences  and  arts 
— in  a word,  they  eschew  everything  that 
tends  to  make  life  bright  and  pleasant.  Even 
this  would  be  well,  if  all  men  corresponded  to 
the  description  which  they  give  of  their  teacher. 
But,  so  far  is  this  from  being  the  case,  that  it 
is  an  absolute  impossibility.  Men  are  naturally 
evil-minded  and  swayed  by  their  passions.  It 
is  this  constant  play  of  the  passions,  and  the 
clashing  and  struggling  that  results,  which 
hold  people  fast  in  that  network  of  conditions 
in  which  they  live.  Savages  know  no  restric- 
tions ; a single  individual  among  them  would, 
for  the  sake  of  glutting  his  lusts,  annihilate 


HAVE  THE  LIGHT. 


55 


the  entire  woidd,  if  all  men  submitted  to  evil 
as  meekly  as  the  Christians.  If  the  gods 
endowed  men  with  a sentiment  of  anger,  vindic- 
tiveness, even  of  malice  against  the  malicious, 
we  may  take  it  that  they  did  so  because  these 
sentiments  were  necessary  to  the  preservation 
of  human  life. 

“ The  Christians  hold  that  these  sentiments 
are  evil,  and  that  without  them  men  would  be 
happy : there  would  then  be  no  murders,  no 
executions,  no  wars.  This  is  true ; but  one 
might  just  as  well  assert  that  it  would  materi- 
ally contribute  to  the  happiness  of  men,  if 
they  were  relieved  of  the  necessity  of  eating 
and  drinking ! 

“ There  would,  indeed,  be  no  hunger  nor 
thirst,  nor  any  of  the  calamities  they  produce. 
But  this  supposition  does  not  change  human 
nature  one  iota.  And  so  it  is  with  all  the 
other  human  passions  : indignation,  malice, 

vindictiveness,  even  sexual  love,  and  love  of 
luxury,  pomp,  and  greatness,  are  likewise 
characteristics  of  the  gods,  hence  they  are 
also,  in  a modified  form,  traits  proper  to  man- 


56 


WORK  WHILE  YE 


kind.  Root  out  the  necessity  of  nourishing 
man,  and  at  the  same  stroke  you  annihilate 
man  himself ; in  like  manner,  demolish  the 
human  passions  and  you  thereby  demolish 
humanity  itself.  The  same  remark  holds  good 
of  property,  which  the  Christians,  it  is  alleged, 
refuse  to  recognize.  Look  around  you  and 
you  will  find  that  every  vineyard,  every  kitchen 
garden,  every  house,  every  mule,  has  been 
produced  solely  and  alone  because  property 
existed  and  was  respected.  Abolish  the  princi- 
ple of  private  property  and  there  will  not  be  a 
single  vineyard  planted,  not  a beast  of  burden 
trained  or  broken  in.  The  Christians  assert 
that  they  possess  no  property ; still  they  enjoy 
its  fruits.  They  say  that  they  have  everything 
in  common,  and  that  they  bring  in  all  their 
possessions  and  put  them  together.  But  what 
they  bring  in,  they  have  received  from  men 
who  own  property.  They  are  simply  throwing 
dust  in  people’s  eyes,  or,  on  the  most  favorable 
supposition,  are  deceiving  themselves.  You 
tell  me  that  they  work  with  their  own  hands  to 
support  themselves;  but  what  they  produce 


HAVE  THE  LIGHT. 


57 


would  not  suffice  to  support  them,  if  they  did 
not  lay  under  contribution  that  which  has 
been  produced  by  other  people  who  recognize 
the  rights  of  property.  If  they  did  succeed 
in  supporting  life,  there  would  be  no  place  in 
their  social  system  for  the  arts  and  sciences. 
They  deny  the  advantages  of  our  arts  and 
sciences.  And  they  cannot  do  otherwise.  The 
whole  gist  and  tenor  of  their  teaching  is  cal- 
culated to  lead  man  back  to  his  primitive  state, 
to  savagery,  to  beastliness.  They  cannot 
employ  the  arts  and  sciences  in  the  service  of 
humanity  ; and,  as  they  are  wholly  ignorant  of 
them,  they  reject  them.  Neither  can  they 
employ  in  the  service  of  humanity  those 
capacities  and  gifts  which  constitute  the  exclu- 
sive prerogative  of  man  and  draw  him  nearer 
to  the  gods.  They  will  have  no  temples,  no 
statues,  no  theatres,  no  museums.  They  assert 
that  they  have  no  need  of  them.  The  readiest 
way  to  avoid  blushing  at  one’s  own  baseness  is 
to  contemn  nobility.  Their  teacher  was  an 
ignorant  deceiver,  and  they  are  not  unsuccess- 
ful in  their  attempts  to  imitate  him.  Further- 


58 


WORK  WHILE  YE 


more,  they  are  impious.  They  refuse  to 
recognize  the  gods  or  their  interference  in 
human  affairs.  They  acknowledge  only  the 
Father  of  their  teacher,  whom  they  call  their 
father,  and  their  teacher  himself,  who,  they 
say,  revealed  to  them  all  the  secrets  of  life. 
Their  doctrine  is  a wretched  fraud.  Weigh 
this  well  : our  belief  is  that  the  universe  is 
maintained  by  the  gods,  and  that  the  gods 
watch  over  and  protect  man.  In  order  to  live 
well,  people  are  bound  to  honor  the  gods,  to 
seek  truth,  — and  think.  Hence  our  life  is 
regulated  on  the  one  hand  by  the  will  of  the 
gods,  and  on  the  other  by  the  collective 
wisdom  of  humanity.  We  live,  think,  and 
seek ; and  are  therefore  advancing  towards 
truth.  They,  on  the  contrary,  have  no  gods, 
nor  divine  will,  nor  human  wisdom  to  look  to, 
but  must  make  the  best  of  their  blind  faith  in 
their  crucified  teacher  and  in  whatever  he 
taught  them.  Now,  decide  for  yourself,  Avhich 
is  the  more  trustworthy  guide  : the  will  of  the 
gods  and  the  joint,  untrammelled  activity  of 
the  wisdom  of  all  humanity,  or  — obligatory, 


HAVE  THE  LIGHT. 


59 


unreasoning  faith  in  the  sayings  of  one 
man  c 

Julius  was  struck  by  these  remarks  of  the 
stranger,  especially  by  his  last  question.  Not 
only  was  his  resolution  to  become  a Christian 
completely  shaken,  but  it  now  seemed  quite  in- 
credible that  the  stress  of  misfortune  should 
have  driven  him  to  the  verge  of  such  folly. 
There  was,  however,  one  other  question  still 
unsettled  : what  was  he  to  do  now,  and  how  was 
he  to  set  about  extricating  himself  from  the 
embarrassing  situation  that  had  made  him  thus 
desperate  ? And,,  having  pointed  out  this  diffi- 
culty, he  asked  the  stranger  for  advice. 

“ I wras  coming  to  that  very  problem,”  the 
stranger  said.  “ What  is  to  be  done  ? The 
line  of  action  you  must  pursue  is,  as  far  as 
human  wisdom  is  accessible  to  me,  perfectly 
clear.  All  your  troubles  have  their  source  in 
your  passions.  It  was  passion  that  whirled 
you  away  and  took  you  so  far  out  of  your  road 
that  you  have  suffered  gravely  in  consequence. 
Life’s  lessons  usually  take  this  form.  You 
should  learn  them  well  and  benefit  by  them. 


60 


WORK  WHILE  YE 


You  have  experienced  much,  and  you  now 
know  what  is  sweet  and  what  is  bitter.  You 
run  no  risk  of  unwittingly  repeating  the  same 
mistakes.  Profit  by  your  experience.  What 
grieves  and  upsets  you  most  is  your  enmity 
with  your  father.  It  had  its  origin  in  your 
position  Choose  another  and  it  will  vanish,  or 
at  least  will  no  longer  manifest  itself  in  the 
same  acute  form. 

u All  your  sufferings  are  due  to  the  irregu- 
larity of  your  position.  You  abandoned  your- 
self to  the  pleasures  of  youth.  This  was 
natural,  and  therefore  right.  And  it  continued 
right  as  long  as  it  beseemed  your  age.  But  the 
season  passed  and  yet  you  continued  with  the 
strength  of  a man  to  indulge  in  the  freaks  of 
a youth  — and  this  was  wrong.  You  are  now 
of  an  age  when  your  will  must  supplement 
nature’s,  and  you  must  become  a man  and  a 
citizen,  serving  the  commonwealth,  working 
for  the  good  of  all  as  well  as  for  your  own. 
Your  father  suggests  that  you  should  marry. 
This  is  wise  counsel.  You  have  passed  through 
one  stage  of  life  — youth  — and  have  now 


HAVE  THE  LIGHT. 


61 


entered  upon  another.  All  your  uneasiness 
and  fears  are  but  so  many  symptoms  of  a 
period  of  transition.  Look  the  truth  manfully 
in  the  face ; admit  that  the  season  of  youth 
is  gone  by ; and,  flinging  dauntlessly  aside 
everything  that  was  proper  to  that  season  with- 
out being  characteristic  of  manhood,  enter  the 
new  road.  Marry : give  up  the  frivolous 
gayeties  of  youth ; occupy  your  mind  with  the 
interests  of  commerce,  with  public  affairs,  with 
sciences  and  arts,  and  not  only  will  you  be 
reconciled  with  your  father  and  your  friends, 
but  you  will  find  rest  and  happiness.  The  root 
of  your  troubles  was  the  abnormal,  unnatural 
position  you  occupied.  You  have  now  reached 
manhood’s  estate,  and  it  is  your  duty  to  take  a 
wife  and  become  a man.  Hence,  my  chief 
counsel  to  you  is  : carry  out  your  father’s  wish, 
— marry. 

“ If  you  feel  that  that  isolation  and  retire- 
ment which  you  imagine  exists  among  the 
Christians  has  still  a charm  for  you  ; if  you 
are  attracted  to  the  study  of  philosophy  rather 
than  to  the  activity  of  public  life,  you  can  give 


62 


HAVE  THE  LIGHT. 


loose  reins  to  your  wishes  with  benefit  to  your- 
self only  on  condition  that  you  have  first 
studied  life  and  learned  its  inner  meaning. 
And  this  you  can  do  only  as  an  independent 
citizen  and  father  of  a family.  If,  when  you 
have  reached  that  point,  you  still  feel  drawn  as 
strongly  as  ever  towards  retirement  and  con- 
templation, give  yourself  up  to  it  without 
hesitation  ; for  it  will  then  be  a genuine  predi- 
lection and  not  a mere  outburst  of  discontent, 
as  it  clearly  is  at  present.  Then  follow  whither 
it  leads  you.” 

The  last  words,  more  than  anything  that 
had  gone  before,  brought  conviction  to  the 
mind  of  Julius.  He  warmly  thanked  the 
stranger,  and  returned  home.  His  mother 
gave  him  a most  cordial  welcome.  His  father, 
too,  informed  of  his  resolution  to  submit  to  his 
will  and  marry  the  young  girl  he  had  chosen 
for  him,  became  reconciled  with  his  son. 


CHAPTER  IV. 


Three  months  later  Julius’s  marriage  with 
the  beautiful  Eulalia  was  duly  celebrated,  and 
the  young  couple  took  up  their  residence  in  a 
house  of  their  own.  Julius,  having  radically 
changed  his  way  of  life,  took  over  that  branch 
of  commerce  which  his  father  ceded  to  him, 
and  began  fairly  to  settle  down  as  a respectable 
member  of  the  community. 

One  day  he  drove  over  to  a little  town  not 
far  distant  on  some  business  connected  with 
his  firm,  and  there,  while  lounging  in  a mer- 
chant’s shop,  he  caught  sight  of  Pamphilius 
passing  by  the  door  accompanied  by  a girl  who 
was  unknown  to  him.  They  were  both  heavily 
laden  with  grapes  which  they  offered  for  sale. 
Julius,  recognizing  his  friend,  went  out  to  him, 


64 


WORK  WHILE  YE 


greeted  him,  and  asked  him  in  to  pass  an  hour 
in  quiet  conversation. 

The  girl,  observing  Pamphilius’s  desire  to 
enter  the  shop  with  his  friend,  and  noticing 
that  he  hesitated  to  leave  her  alone,  at  once 
assured  him  that  she  did  not  need  his  services 
and  that  she  would  sit  there  by  herself  and 
wait  for  a purchaser  for  the  grapes. 

Pamphilius  thanked  her  and  accompanied 
Julius  into  the  shop.  Julius  asked  and  re- 
ceived permission  of  his  friend,  the  merchant, 
to  retire  with  Pamphilius  to  an  inner  apart- 
ment where  they  might  enjoy  a little  quiet 
talk. 

Once  there,  the  friends  began  to  question 
each  other  about  the  ups  and  downs  they  had 
met  with  since  they  had  last  seen  each  other. 

Pamphilius’s  life  had  glided  smoothly  on, 
bringing  no  material  change  : he  still  lived  in 
the  Christian  community,  was  a bachelor  as 
before,  and  felt,  he  assured  his  friend,  that 
every  year,  every  day,  and  every  hour  brought 
him  increase  of  happiness. 

Julius  thereupon  narrated  his  experiences, 


HAVE  THE  LIGHT. 


65 


and  described  how  he  had  been  on  the  point  of 
becoming  a Christian  and  was  already  on  the 
road  to  the  Christian  village,  when  he  was 
stopped  by  the  stranger  who  opened  his  eyes 
to  the  errors  of  the  Christians,  and  made  him 
sensible  of  his  duty  to  marry.  “ And  I acted 
upon  his  advice  and  am  now  a married  man,” 
he  concluded. 

“ And  are  you  happy  now  ? ” asked  Pam- 
philius.  “ Have  you  found  in  marriage  the 
bliss  the  stranger  promised  you  ? ” 

“ Happy  ? ” repeated  Julius.  “ What  is  the 
meaning  of  the  word  happy  ? 

“ If  we  are  to  take  it  to  connote  the  perfect 
realization  of  one’s  desires,  then  I am  not 
happy.  I am  conducting  my  business  affairs 
with  a fair  degree  of  success,  and  I am  also 
beginning  to  be  respected  by  my  neighbors ; 
and  both  these  circumstances  afford  me  a 
considerable  amount  of  satisfaction.  True,  I 
daily  come  in  contact  with  many  citizens  who  are 
much  wealthier  and  more  widely  respected  than 
I am : but  I flatter  myself  that  a time  will 
come  when  I shall  overtake  and  possibly  out- 


66 


WORK  WHILE  YE 


strip  them  in  both  these  respects.  This  aspect 
of  my  life,  then,  is  very  satisfactory ; with 
respect  to  my  marriage,  to  be  frank  with  you, 
I fear  I cannot  say  quite  as  much.  I will  go 
a step  further,  and  confess  that  that  union, 
wdiich  was  to  have  conferred  joy  and  happiness 
upon  me,  has  disappointed  me  ; that  the  pleas- 
ure I experienced  from  it  in  the  beginning  has 
ever  since  been  on  the  wane,  and  that  now,  in  lieu 
of  married  bliss,  I am  face  to  face  with  misery. 
My  wife  is  handsome,  intelligent,  good-natured, 
accomplished.  At  first  she  made  me  indescrib- 
ably happy.  But  at  present  numerous  causes 
of  disagreement  are  ever  cropping  up  between 
us  — you  cannot  understand  this,  not  being 
married  yourself  — now  because  she  seeks  my 
caresses  when  I am  cold  and  indifferent  to 
her,  now  because  the  roles  are  changed 
my  temporary  indifference  has  passed  over  to 
her.  Love,  moreover,  needs  the  charm  of 
novelty  to  feed  it.  A woman  much  less  attrac- 
tive than  my  wife  exercises  at  first  a much 
greater  fascination  over  me  than  she  does,  and 
then  again  grows  far  more  insipid  than  even 


HAVE  THE  LIGHT. 


67 


my  wife.  I have  felt  this  more  than  once. 
No ; honestly,  I may  say  that  I have  not  found 
what  I hoped  for  in  marriage.  The  philoso- 
phers, my  friend,  are  right : life  never  gives 
all  that  the  soul  longs  for.  I have  verified  the 
truth  of  this  in  marriage.  But  the  circumstance 
that  life  withholds  from  us  the  happiness 
which  the  human  soul  yearns  for  is  by  no 
means  a proof  that  your  deceitful  system 
supplies  it,”  he  concluded,  with  a laugh. 

“ Why  deceitful  ? ” asked  Pamphilius.  “ In 
what  do  you  detect  symptoms  of  fraud  ?” 

“Your  deception  consists  in  this:  that  in 
order  to  deliver  mankind  from  the  calamities 
that  are  inseparable  from  the  affairs  of  life,  you 
repudiate  all  the  affairs  of  life,  nay,  life  itself. 
In  order  to  spare  men  the  pain  of  disillusion, 
you  cause  them  to  eschew  all  illusions ; you 
repudiate  — even  marriage.” 

“We  do  no  such  thing  ! ” protested  Pamphil- 
ius. 

“ If  it  is  not  marriage  that  you  repudiate, 
then  it  is  love.” 

“ Love  ! ” exclaimed  Pamphilius.  “ Why,  we 


68 


WORK  WHILE  YE 


abjure  everything  except  love.  Love,  with  us, 
is  the  corner-stone  of  the  whole  edifice.” 

“ I do  not  understand  you,  then,”  said  Julius. 
u J udging  by  what  I have  heard  from  others, 
and,  I may  add,  by  your  own  example  — for 
although  you  and  I are  of  the  same  age,  you 
are  still  unmarried  — I gather  that  you  Chris- 
tians have  no  conjugal  union.  You  do  not 
sever  the  marriage  ties  which  you  have  already 
contracted,  but  you  make  no  new  ones.  You 
take  no  thought  for  the  perpetuation  of  the 
human  race ; and,  if  the  earth  were  peopled 
with  none  but  Christians,  humanity  would  soon 
cease  to  exist,”  exclaimed  Julius,  echoing  an 
assertion  which  he  had  heard  many  times  before. 

“ That  is  scarcely  a fair  way  of  stating  the 
case,  is  it  ? ” replied  Pamphilius.  “ It  is  true  that 
we  do  not  deliberately  make  it  our  aim  to  per- 
petuate the  human  race,  nor  do  we  take  the 
matter  so  very  much  to  heart,  as  I have  often 
heard  it  remarked  by  some  of  your  wise  men. 
Our  minds  are  set  at  rest  on  the  subject  by  our 
firm  belief  that  our  Father,  who  vigilantly 
watches  over  mankind,  is  mindful  of  all  their 


HAVE  THE  LIGHT. 


69 


wants ; it  is  our  object  to  live  in  accordance 
with  His  will.  If  He  wills  it  that  the  human 
race  should  subsist,  He  will  likewise  find  the 
means  of  perpetuating  it ; if  not,  it  will  inevita- 
bly come  to  an  end.  That,  however,  is  no  care 
of  ours  ; our  task  is  the  more  modest  one  of  liv- 
ing according  to  His  will.  His  will  is  mani- 
fested to  us  both  in  our  own  nature  and  in  the 
revelation  He  has  vouchsafed  to  give  us,  which 
says  that  a man  shall  cleave  to  his  wife : and 
they  twain  shall  be  one  flesh.  Marriage  is  not 
only  not  forbidden  by  our  laws  but  is  directly 
encouraged  by  our  elders  who  are  learned  in 
the  law.  The  main  difference  between  your 
marriage  and  ours  consists  in  the  revelation 
given  to  us  from  on  high  that  every  lustful 
glance  at  a woman  is  sinful,  and  the  practical 
results  which  our  belief  in  that  revelation  has 
produced,  and  which  may  be  summed  up  as 
follows  : we  and  our  women,  instead  of  leaving 
no  means  untried  to  dress  finely  and  beautify 
ourselves  for  the  purpose  of  kindling  carnal 
desires  in  the  hearts  of  those  who  look  upon  us, 
direct  all  our  efforts  to  the  stifling  of  all  such 


70 


WORK  WHILE  YE 


impure  movements,  so  that  the  sentiment  of 
love  among  us,  as  among  brothers  and  sisters, 
should  be  strong  enough  to  outweigh  the  feel- 
ing of  lust  for  one  woman  to  which  you  give 
the  name  of  love.” 

“ All  that  is  well  and  good,”  remarked  J ulius  ; 
“ but  surely  you  cannot  stifle  the  feeling  of 
pleasure  and  love  that  springs  up  within  us  when 
we  look  upon  the  beautiful.  Not  to  wander  far 
afield  for  an  instance,  I am  satisfied  that  that 
pretty  girl  with  whom  you  brought  the  grapes, 
in  spite  of  her  attire,  which  works  wonders  in 
the  way  of  hiding  her  charms,  kindles  in  your 
breast  the  sentiment  of  love  for  woman.” 

“ I do  not  think  that  that  is  so,”  said  Pam- 
philius,  blushing.  “ I never  thought  of  her 
beauty.  You  are  the  first  to  suggest  such  a 
thing.  She  is  but  a sister  to  me.  But  to  come 
back  to  what  I was  saying  about  the  difference 
between  marriage  with  you  and  with  us : it 
arises,  as  I was  remarking,  from  the  circum- 
stance that  with  you  carnal  lust,  under  the 
name  of  beauty,  love,  service  of  the  goddess 
Yenus,  is  deliberately  provoked  and  main- 


HAVE  THE  LIGHT. 


71 


tained  ; whereas,  with  us,  on  the  contrary,  it  is 
avoided,  not  because  we  hold  it  to  be  an  evil 
(God  has  created  no  evil),  — indeed  we  esteem 
it  a positive  good,  — but  because  it  can  and 
does  become  an  evil,  a temptation,  as  we  call  it, 
when  not  confined  to  its  proper  place.  Now, 
we  strain  every  nerve  to  avoid  this.  And  that 
is  the  reason  why  I am  not  married  yet, 
although  I know  of  nothing  to  prevent  me 
from  taking  a wife  to-morrow.” 

u And  what  will  determine  your  choice  ? ” 

“ The  will  of  God.” 

“ How  do  you  discover  it  ? ” 

“ If  you  never  look  for  its  manifestations 
you  will  never  find  them.  If  you  are  contin- 
ually on  the  watch  for  them  they  become 
visible  and  clear,  as  clear  as  divination  by  sac- 
rifices, or  by  the  flight  of  birds,  is  to  you.  And 
as  you  have  wise  men  among  you  who  interpret 
to  you  the  will  of  your  gods  by  the  light  of 
their  own  knowledge,  and  by  signs  which  they 
discern  in  the  entrails  of  the  victim  or  the 
flight  of  birds,  in  like  manner  we,  too,  have  our 
wise  men  — elders  — who  make  known  to  us 


72 


WORK  WHILE  YE 


the  will  of  our  Father  by  means  of  the  Christ’s 
revelation,  by  the  promptings  of  their  heart, 
by  the  thoughts  of  others,  and,  above  all,  by  the 
love  they  cherish  for  their  fellow-man.” 

“ All  that  is  much  too  vague,”  objected 
Julius.  “ Who  is  to  tell  you,  for  example, 
when  and  whom  you  should  marry  ? Now, 
when  the  time  came  for  me  to  marry,  I had 
the  choice  of  three  girls.  These  possible  waves 
■were  selected  from  among  all  the  others  by 
reason  of  their  uncommon  beauty  and  great 
wealth ; and  my  father  consented  in  advance 
to  my  marriage  with  any  one  of  the  three.  It 
was  from  these  three  that  I selected  my  Eulalia, 
because  she  was  the  prettiest  and  in  my  eyes 
the  most  fascinating.  All  that  was  quite 
natural.  But  who  will  guide  your  choice  ? ” 

“ Before  giving  a direct  reply  to  your  ques- 
tion,” said  Pamphilius,  “ let  me  first  tell  you 
that,  in  our  religion,  as  all  men  are  equal  in  the 
eyes  of  our  Father,  so  are  they  equal  in  our 
eyes,  both  in  respect  of  their  position  and  in 
regard  to  their  physical  and  moral  qualities-  It 
follows  from  this  that  our  choice  (if  I must 


HAVE  THE  LIGHT. 


73 


employ  a word  which  for  us  has  no  meaning) 
is  not  and  cannot  be  in  any  way  circumscribed. 
Any  human  being  living  on  this  earth  can  be- 
come the  husband  or  wife  of  a Christian.” 

“ That  makes  it  all  the  more  difficult  to  fix 
one’s  choice,”  said  Julius. 

“ Let  me  tell  you  what  one  of  our  elders  re- 
marked to  me  the  other  day  on  the  difference 
between  Christian  and  Pagan  marriages,”  re- 
plied Pamphilius.  “ The  Pagan  chooses  that 
girl  of  all  others  who,  to  his  thinking,  is  quali- 
fied to  yield  him  the  highest  degree  and 
greatest  variety  of  enjoyment.  The  effect  of 
this  condition  is  to  make  him  dart  his  eyes 
with  lightning  rapidity  from  one  to  another, 
irresolute  which  to  choose  ; for  what  makes  it 
the  more  difficult  to  come  to  a decision  is  that 
the  enjoyment  in  question  is  an  unknown 
quantity  veiled  in  the  shadowy  future.  A 
Christian,  on  the  other  hand,  is  not  embar- 
rassed by  the  element  of  personal  choice  ; that 
is  to  say,  considerations  of  a purely  personal 
nature  occupy  a secondary  rather  than  the  fore- 
most place.  His  one  absorbing  care  is  that 


74 


WORK  WHILE  YE 


his  marriage  shall  not  run  counter  to  the  will 
of  God.” 

“ But  how  is  it  possible  to  oppose  God’s  will 
by  a marriage  ? ” 

“ If  I were  to  forget  the  Iliad,”  replied  Pam- 
philius,  “ that  you  and  I were  wont  to  study  and 
read  aloud  together  in  bygone  times,  there  would 
be  little  to  wonder  at  and  nothing  to  censure. 
But  if  you  forget  it,  who  live  in  the  midst  of 
philosophers  and  poets,  you  cannot  plead  the 
same  justification.  Now,  what  is  the  Iliad  but 
the  story  of  the  transgression  of  the  will  of  God 
by  a marriage  ? And  Menelaus  and  Paris, 
and  Helen  and  Achilles  and  Agamemnon  and 
Chryseis  are  all  elements  of  a description  of  the 
terrible  calamities  that  overtook,  and  do  now-a- 
days  still  overtake,  people  who  oppose  their  will 
to  that  of  God  in  this  matter  of  marriage.” 

“ In  what  does  this  opposition  consist  ? ” 

“ In  the  fact  that  what  a man  loves  in  a 
woman  is  not  a fellow-creature  like  himself  but 
the  personal  enjoyment  which  his  union  Avith 
her  will  bring  him,  and  for  the  purpose  of  pro- 
curing this  pleasure  he  contracts  marriage.  A 


HAVE  THE  LIGHT. 


Christian  marriage  is  not  possible  unless  a man 
is  inspired  by  love  for  his  fellow-creatures  ; and 
the  person  whom  be  takes  for  partner  must  in 
the  first  place  be  the  object  of  this  brotherly 
affection  of  man  for  bis  fellow.  As  it  is  out  of 
the  question  to  build  a bouse  unless  a foundation 
has  been  laid,  or  to  paint  a picture  unless  you 
have  first  prepared  the  canvas  or  other  material 
upon  which  you  propose  to  paint  it,  so  carnal 
love  can  never  be  lawful,  reasonable  or  endur- 
ing unless  it  is  raised  upon  a structure  of  love, 
and  reverence  of  man  for  man.  Only  on  this 
basis  is  it  possible  to  establish  a wise  Christian 
family  life.” 

“ Still  it  is  not,  I confess,  quite  clear  to  my 
mind  why  the  marriage  you  term  Christian 
should  exclude  that  species  of  love  for  woman- 
kind which  Paris  felt.” 

u I do  not  suggest  that  Christian  marriage 
does  not  admit  exclusive  love  for  one  woman  ; 
on  the  contrary,  it  is  judicious  and  holy  only 
when  such  love  is  one  of  its  elements.  But 
what  I should  like  to  bring  out  with  a degree 
of  clearness  equal  to  the  importance  of  the  point 


76 


WORK  WHILE  YE 


is  that  real  exclusive  love  for  a woman  is  possi- 
ble only  when  the  more  general  love  for  all 
mankind  is  respected  and  maintained  intact. 
That  description  of  exclusive  love  for  a woman 
which  the  poets  sing,  and  proclaim  as  excellent 
in  itself,  although  not  founded  upon  the  love 
of  man  for  his  fellows,  does  not  deserve  the 
name  of  love.  It  is  animal  lust,  which  very 
often  loses  itself  in  hatred.  The  best  proof  of 
my  thesis  that  what  is  usually  termed  love  — 
Eros  — changes  to  beastliness  when  not  resting 
on  the  broad  basis  of  brotherly  affection  for  all 
men,  is  the  case  in  which  violence  is  employed 
against  the  very  woman  whom  the  ravisher  pro- 
fesses to  love,  even  while  causing  her  pain  that 
will  retain  its  sting  as  long  as  life  endures. 
Can  a man  be  said  to  cherish  affection  for  a 
person  whom  he  thus  tortures  ? Now  in  Pagan 
marriages  one  frequently  finds  cases  of  masked 
violence,  when  a man  marries  a girl  who  either 
simply  does  not  love  him  in  return  or  loves 
another,  and  ruthlessly  inflicts  pain  and  suffer- 
ing upon  her,  simply  that  he  may  appease  the 
brutal  appetite  which  is  misnamed  love.” 


HAVE  THE  LIGHT. 


77 


“ I grant  all  that,”  interrupted  Julius;  “ but 

am  I to  take  it  that  if  the  girl  does  love  him,  it 

follows  that  there  is  no  injustice  in  the  matter? 

If  so,  I do  not  see  in  what  respect  a Christian 

union  differs  from  a Pagan  marriage.” 

© © 

u I am  not  acquainted  with  the  details  of  your 
own  marriage,”  replied  Pamphilius  ; “ but  it  is 
perfectly  obvious  to  me  that  every  marriage, 
wherever  and  whenever  contracted,  at  the  root 
of  which  lies  mere  personal  enjoyment,  cannot 
but  prove  an  abundant  source  of  discord,  just 
as  the  process  of  feeding  cannot  take  place 
among  animals,  or  among  human  beings  who  are 
but  little  removed  from  the  mere  animal  stage, 
without  breeding  quarrels  and  fights  : each  one 
is  eager  to  seize  upon  a titbit,  and  as  there  are 
not  enough  of  these  delicious  morsels  for  them 
all,  the  result  is  a scramble  and  a fight.  If  the 
quarrel  does  not  actually  break  out  into  active 
hostilities,  it  is  none  the  less  real  for  being 
latent.  The  weak  individual  longs  for  the  lus- 
cious morsel,  conscious  though  he  is  that  his 
more  powerful  neighbor  will  never  cede  it  to 
him,  and  although  he  discerns  the  impossibility 


78 


WORK  WHILE  YE 


of  snatching  it  from  his  rival  by  force,  still  he 
eyes  him  with  secret,  envious  hatred,  and  is  ever 
ready  to  profit  by  any  favorable  opportunity 
that  offers  to  deprive  him  of  it.  It  is  just  the 
same  with  Pagan  marriages  — only  that  the 
results  are  far  worse  in  degree,  owing  to  the 
circumstance  that  the  coveted  object  is  a human 
being ; and  so  discord  and  hatred  are  engendered 
between  the  spouses  themselves.” 

“ And  how  do  you  propose  to  compel  the  in- 
tending spouses  to  love  each  other  and  no  one 
else  besides  ? In  every  case  the  young  girl  or 
the  young  man  will  be  found  to  love  some  one 
else ; in  which  case,  according  to  you,  marriage 
is  impossible.  From  this  I clearly  perceive 
that  the  people  who  maintain  that  you  Chris- 
tians do  not  marry  at  all  are  quite  right.  This 
is  also  the  reason  why  you  are  single,  and  will 
probably  ever  remain  so.  For  how  is  it  con- 
ceivable that  a man  who  marries  a girl  should 
have  never  previously  inflamed  the  heart  of 
any  other  woman,  or  that  a girl  should  have 
reached  the  age  of  maturity  without  having 
ever  awakened  the  feeling  of  love  in  the  breast 


HAVE  THE  LIGHT. 


79 


of  any  man  ? What  do  yon  suggest  that 
Helen  should  have  done  ?” 

u Our  elder  Cyril,  speaking  once  of  this 
matter,  remarked  that  people  in  the  Pagan 
world,  without  spending  even  a passing  thought 
upon  their  duty  of  loving  their  fellow-men, 
without  having  ever  done  anything  to  educate 
such  a feeling,  are  solicitous  about  one  thing 
only : how  to  excite  in  their  own  breasts  a 
passionate  love  for  woman  ; and  they  leave 
nothing  undone  to  foster  this  passion.  It  is 
for  this  reason  that  in  their  world  every  Helen, 
or  Helen-like  woman,  arouses  the  love  of  many 
men.  The  rivals  fight  with  each  other  and 
strain  every  nerve  to  excel  each  other,  just  like 
brutes  eager  to  win  the  female.  And  to  a 
greater  or  lesser  extent  their  marriage  is  a 
struggle  — a form  of  violence.  In  our  eom- 
munity  we  not  only  never  think  of  personal  en- 
joyment of  beauty,  but  we  sedulously  avoid 
all  those  seductive  contrivances  and  artifices 
likely  to  act  as  temptations  thereto,  which  the 
Pagan  world  has  raised  almost  to  the  dignity 
of  apotheosis.  We  fix  our  thoughts  upon  the 


80 


WORK  WHILE  YE 


obligation  we  are  under  to  reverence  and  love 
our  neighbor  — comprising  in  this  term  all 
men,  whether  they  happen  to  be  of  unsurpass- 
ing  beauty  or  of  repulsive  ugliness.  W e do  our 
best  to  educate  that  sentiment,  and  this  is  why 
with  us  love  for  our  fellow-men  gets  the  upper 
hand  over  the  seductions  of  beauty,  conquers 
them,  and  removes  all  pretexts  for  quarrels  and 
feuds  that  have  their  source  in  the  relations  of 
the  sexes. 

“ A Christian  contracts  marriage  only  when 
his  union  with  the  woman,  between  whom  and 
himself  there  is  a bond  of  mutual  affection, 
causes  bitterness  to  no  one.  Cyril  goes  even 
so  far  as  to  say  that  a Christian  will  not  even 
feel  an  attachment  for  a woman,  unless  he 
knows  that  his  marriage  with  her  will  not  cause 
a feeling  of  pain  to  any  one.” 

“ But  is  such  a thing  conceivable?”  ob- 
jected Julius.  “Is  a man,  then,  the  master  of 
his  likes  and  dislikes?  ” 

“ Not  if  he  have  already  given  them  loose 
rein  ; but  he  can  avoid  arousing  them  and 
arrest  their  development.  Take,  as  a case  in 


HAVE  THE  LIGHT. 


81 


point,  the  relations  of  fathers  to  their  daugh- 
ters, mothers  to  their  sons,  brothers  to  their 
sisters.  A mother,  daughter,  or  sister,  how 
beautiful  soever  she  may  be,  is  never  conceived 
of  as  an  object  of  personal  enjoyment  by  her 
son,  her  father,  or  her  brother,  and  so  the 
coarse,  animal  feelings  are  not  awakened.  They 
would  be  aroused,  in  such  a case,  if  the  man 
discovered  that  his  supposed  daughter,  mother, 
or  sister  was  no  relation  whatever  ; but  even 
then  the  sentiment  in  question  would  be  feeble, 
and  easily  amenable  to  reason  : it  would  cost  the 
man  but  little  effort  to  curb  or  wholly  repress  it. 
The  reason  why  the  coarse,  carnal  feeling  would 
be  weak  is  because  there  would  lie  at  its  root 
some  sentiment  of  filial,  paternal,  or  brotherly 
love.  Why  do  you  persist  in  doubting  that  it 
is  possible,  and  even  easy,  to  evoke  and  educate 
in  man  exactly  such  a sentiment  towards  all 
women  as  is  actually  entertained  towards 
mothers,  daughters,  and  sisters ; and  to  cause 
the  feeling  of  conjugal  love  to  flourish  on  this 
basis  ? As  a young  man  will  not  allow  himself 
to  cherish  anything  like  sexual  affection  for  the 


82 


WORK  WHILE  YE 


young  girl  whom  he  looked  upon  as  his  sister, 
until  he  is  perfectly  satisfied  that  she  is  not  his 
sister,  so  a Christian  refuses  to  entertain  a sim- 
ilar feeling  for  any  woman  whatever,  until  he 
knows  that  such  love  for  her  on  his  part  will 
cause  no  one  pain  or  displeasure.” 

“ But  how  if  two  men  fall  in  love  with  the 
same  girl  ? ” 

“ One  of  them  will  sacrifice  his  love  for  the 
happiness  of  the  other.” 

“ But  suppose  she  herself  loves  one  of  them  ? ” 
“ Then  he  whom  she  loves  less  will  sacrifice 
his  love  for  her  happiness.” 

“ Well,  but  if  she  loves  the  two,  and  both 
insist  on  sacrificing  their  sentiments,  she  will 
not  marry  either,  I take  it?” 

“ In  a case  of  that  kind  the  elders  would 
weigh  the  matter  well,  and  advise  the  parties 
to  take  a course  that  would  result  in  the  great- 
est amount  of  happiness  for  all  concerned, 
combined  with  the  greatest  amount  of  love.” 

“ But  that  is  not  the  course  usually  taken, 
and  the  reason  is  that  it  is  contrary  to  human 
nature.” 


HAVE  THE  LIGHT 


83 


“ Human  nature  ? Which  human  nature  ? 
Besides  being  an  animal,  a man  is,  I presume, 
likewise  a man,  and  if  the  relations  to  woman 
which  our  Christian  religion  advocates  are  not 
in  harmony  with  man’s  animal  nature,  they  are 
in  perfect  accordance  with  his  rational  nature. 
And  when  he  makes  his  reason  the  handmaid 
of  his  animal  nature,  he  falls  lower  in  the  scale 
of  God’s  creatures  than  the  very  brutes  — he 
descends  to  violence,  to  incest,  to  which  no 
animal  sinks.  But  when  he  employs  his 
rational  nature  to  curb  his  animal  instincts, 
when  the  latter  are  forced  into  the  service  of 
the  former,  then,  and  only  then,  does  he  obtain 
that  happiness  which  alone  is  capable  of  satis- 
fying his  yearnings.” 


CHAPTER  V. 


“ But  now  let  me  hear  what  you  have  to  tell 
me  about  yourself.  I noticed  you  in  the  street 
with  a beautiful  girl  with  whom,  if  I may 
judge  by  appearances,  you  live  together  in 
that  town  of  yours.  Now,  tell  me,  can  it  be 
possible  that  you  have  no  desire  to  become 
her  husband  ? ” 

“ I have  never  given  the  subject  any  serious 
consideration/’  replied  Pamphilius.  “ She  is 
the  daughter  of  a Christian  widow  to  whom  I 
render  what  services  I can,  just  as  others  do, 
besides  myself.  I serve  the  mother  as  I do 
the  daughter,  and  I love  both  equally  well. 
You  wish  to  know  whether  the  love  I feel  for 
her  is  of  a nature  to  justify  my  marrying  her  ? 
The  question  is  a painful  one  for  me,  but  I will 


HAVE  THE  LIGHT. 


85 


give  you  a straightforward  answer.  The  idea 
has,  I confess,  occurred  to  me ; hut  there  is  a 
youth  of  my  acquaintance  who  also  loves  her, 
and  that  is  why  I have  never  yet  seriously  enter- 
tained it.  He,  too,  is  a Christian,  and  he  loves 
us  both  dearly  ; and  I could  not  for  a moment 
think  of  doing  anything  that  might  give  him 
pain.  So  I live  on  without  giving  these  ideas 
any  place  in  my  thoughts.  All  my  desires  are 
centred  in  one  aim  — to  fulful  the  law  of 
love  — love  for  our  fellow-men.  That  is  the 
one  thing  necessary.  As  for  wedlock,  I shall 
marry  when  I am  convinced  that  it  is  my  duty 
to  do  so.” 

“ Those  are  your  ideas  : but  the  mother’s 
standpoint  may  be  different.  It  cannot  surely 
be  immaterial  to  her  whether  she  gets  a son-in- 
law  who  is  kindly  and  industrious,  or  one  who 
is  the  reverse.  She  will  be  naturally  desirous 
of  having  you  for  such  a near  relation.” 

“ By  no  means.  It  is  perfectly  indifferent 
to  her ; because  she  is  well  aware  that  all  our 
brethren  are  to  the  full  as  willing-  as  I am  to 
serve  her,  just  as  we  are  to  be  useful  to  every 


8G 


WORK  WHILE  YE 


other  brother  and  sister ; and  that  I shall 
continue  to  do  what  I can  for  her  in  exactly 
the  same  way,  whether  I do  or  do  not  become 
her  son-in-law.  If  the  outcome  of  it  all 
should  be  my  marriage  with  her  daughter,  I 
shall  welcome  such  a consummation  with  joy  — 
just  as  I should  her  marriage  with  somebody 
else.” 

“ No,  no ; what  you  are  saying  now  is 
utterly  impossible.  And  herein  lies  the  most 
terrible  thing  I have  observed  in  you  Chris- 
tians — that  you  so  completely  deceive  your- 
selves ! And  in  this  way  you  deceive  others 
as  well.  That  stranger  whom  I told  you 
about  a few  minutes  ago  was  right  in  what  he 
asserted  about  you.  While  listening  to  your 
glowing  descriptions  I involuntarily  succumb 
to  the  spell  of  the  charming  life  which  you 
depict ; but,  when  I think  it  carefully  over,  I 
see  that  it  is  all  deception  — and  a deception 
which  leads  to  savagery,  to  brutality,  to  a life 
approaching  that  of  the  beasts.” 

“ In  what  do  you  discern  this  savagery  ? ” 

u In  the  circumstance  that,  as  you  work  to 


HAVE  THE  LIGHT. 


87 


earn  a livelihood,  you  have  no  leisure  or  oppor- 
tunity to  devote  yourselves  to  science  and  art. 
Here  are  you,  for  instance,  attired  in  a ragged 
garment,  with  rough,  horny  hands  and  feet, 
while  your  mate,  who  might  well  be  a goddess 
of  beauty,  is  as  like  a slave  as  a freewoman 
could  be.  You  Christians  have  no  hymns  of 
Apollo,  no  temples,  no  poetry,  no  games  — in 
a word,  nothing  of  all  those  gifts  of  the  gods 
to  man  which  adorn  life  and  make  it  beautiful. 
To  grind,  grind,  and  grind,  like  slaves  or  oxen, 
merely  in  order  to  support  yourself  on  the 
coarsest  of  food  — what  else  is  that  but  volun- 
tary and  impious  renunciation  of  the  human 
will  and  nature  ? ” 

“ There  it  is  again,”  exclaimed  Pamphilius ; 
“ that  tiresome  human  nature  ! In  what  does 
this  nature  consist,  pray  ? Is  it  in  torturing 
slaves  with  work  beyond  their  strength,  in  the 
butchering  of  one’s  brothers  or  reducing  them 
to  slavery,  or  is  it  in  transforming  woman  from 
what  she  Avas  and  is  into  an  object  of  amuse- 
ment? . . And  yet  all  this  alone  beseems 

human  natui’e.  Is  that  the  essence  of  human 


88 


WORK  WHILE  YE 


nature,  or  does  it  not  rather  consist  in  living 
in  love  and  fellowship  with  all  men,  and  feeling 
oneself  a member  of  one  universal  brother- 
hood ? 

“ Y ou,  too,  are  grievously  mistaken  if  you 
imagine  that  we  refuse  to  recognize  science 
and  arts.  We  highly  appreciate  all  the  gifts 
and  talents  with  which  human  nature  is 
endowed. 

“ W e look  upon  all  man’s  inborn  capacities 
as  means  given  to  assist  him  to  attain  one  sole 
end,  to  the  realization  of  which  our  whole  life 
is  devoted,  and  that  is  the  fulfilment  of  the 
will  of  God.  In  science  and  arts  we  discern, 
not  a vulgar  pastime,  fit  only  to  give  transient 
pleasure  to  idle  people,  but  serious  avocations, 
of  which  we  have  a right  to  demand  what  we 
require  of  all  human  callings,  namely,  that,  in 
pursuing  them,  the  same  active  love  of  God 
and  of  one’s  fellow-man  be  made  manifest 
which  permeates  all  the  acts  of  a Christian. 
We  do  not  recognize  as  true  science  anything 
so  called  which  fails  to  help  us  to  live  better  ; 
neither  do  we  value  art  but  that  which  purifies 


HAVE  THE  LIGHT. 


89 


our  thoughts  and  projects,  raises  up  the  soul, 
and  increases  the  forces  necessary  to  a life  of 
labor  and  of  love.  We  lose  no  opportunity  to 
develop,  as  far  as  is  possible,  knowledge  of 
this  kind  in  ourselves  and  in  our  children ; and 
the  charms  of  such  art  we  feel  and  delight  in 
during  our  leisure  moments.  We  read  and 
study  the  writings  bequeathed  to  us  by  the 
wisdom  of  men  who  lived  before  us ; we  chant 
songs,  we  paint  pictures,  and  our  songs  and 
our  pictures  comfort  us,  cheer  us  up  in  mo- 
ments of  sadness.  Therefore  it  is  that  we 
cannot  bring  ourselves  to  approve  the  way  in 
which  you  Pagans  apply  the  arts  and  sciences. 
Your  scholars  employ  their  natural  capacities 
and  acquired  knowledge  to  invent  new  ways  of 
working  evil  to  others.  They  are  always  busy 
making  the  methods  of  war  more  effective, 
more  deadly ; that  is  to  say,  they  are  engaged 
in  making  murder  easier.  They  are  ever  con- 
cocting new  schemes  for  earning  money ; that 
is,  for  enriching  some  persons  at  the  expense 
of  others.  Your  art  is  utilized  for  the  build- 
ing and  ornamentation  of  temples  in  honor  of 


90 


WORK  WHILE  YE 


gods,  in  whom  the  most  enlightened  among 
you  have  long  since  ceased  to  believe,  but  faith 
in  whom  you  try  to  keep  alive  in  others,  in  the 
hope  that  by  means  of  this  fraud  it  will  be  all 
the  more  easy  for  you  to  keep  them  well  in 
hand.  Your  statues  are  raised  to  the  strongest 
and  most  cruel  of  your  tyrants,  whom  no  one 
esteems,  but  all  fear.  In  the  plays  given  in 
your  theatres  criminal  love  is  lauded  and 
applauded.  Music,  among  you,  is  degraded  to 
the  role  of  a means  of  tickling  the  senses  of 
rich  gluttons  after  they  have  gorged  themselves 
to  satiety  on  the  meats  and  drinks  of  their 
luxurious  banquets.  The  highest  use  to  which 
painting  is  put  is  to  depict,  in  houses  of  ill-fame, 
scenes  at  which  no  man  can  glance  without 
blushing,  whose  senses  are  not  paralyzed  by 
the  fumes  of  wine,  or  blunted  by  beastly 
passion. 

“ No ; it  is  not  for  such  purposes  that  man 
is  endowed  with  those  higher  attributes  which 
distinguish  him  from  the  beasts  of  the  field. 
They  were  not  given  to  be  turned  into  a play- 
thing for  the  delectation  of  our  bodies.  By 


HAVE  THE  LIGHT . 


91 


consecrating  our  whole  life  to  the  fulfilment  of 
God’s  will  we  are  employing,  and  employing  to 
the  highest  purpose,  all  those  nobler  gifts  and 
faculties  which  we  have  received  for  God.” 

66  Yes/’  Julius  answered;  “ all  that  would  be 
sublime,  if  only  life  were  possible  under  such 
conditions.  But  one  cannot  live  so.  You  are 
only  deluding  yourselves.  You  refuse  to  ac- 
knowledge our  protection ; but  if  it  were  not 
for  the  Roman  legions,  could  you  live  peace- 
ably? You  enjoy  the  protection  which  you 
refuse  to  acknowledge.  Even  certain  members 
of  your  own  community  — you  yourself  told 
me  — defended  themselves.  You  do  not  rec- 
ognize property,  and  yet  you  enjoy  it ; your 
brethren  own  property  and  give  it  to  you ; you 
yourself  take  care  not  to  give  away  for  nothing 
the  grapes  you  carry ; you  sell  them,  and  you 
will  also  in  turn  make  purchases.  Now,  all 
this  is  a delusion.  If  you  carried  out  what 
you  say  to  the  letter,  then  I should  understand 
your  position ; but  as  it  is,  you  are  deceiving 
others  and  yourselves  to  boot.” 

Julius  waxed  hot  during  the  conversation, 


92 


WORK  WHILE  YE 


and  gave  expression  to  every  thought  that 
flitted  through  his  mind.  Pamphilius  remained 
silent,  awaiting  the  end.  When  Julius  ceased 
speaking,  he  said 

“You  are  in  error  when  you  say  that  we 
enjoy  without  recognizing  the  protection  you 
afford  us.  We  have  no  need  of  Roman  legions, 
because  we  attach  no  importance  whatever  to 
those  things  which  require  to  be  protected  by 
violence.  Our  happiness  is  centred  in  that 
which  needs  defence,  which  no  man  can 
take  away  from  us.  If  material  objects  which 
you  regard  as  personal  property  pass  through 
our  hands,  it  should  be  borne  in  mind  that  we 
do  not  look  upon  them  or  treat  them  as  our 
own ; we  hand  them  over  to  those  for  whose 
support  they  are  necessary.  It  is  true  that 
we  sell  grapes,  but  not  for  profit ; only  in  order 
to  obtain  the  necessaries  of  life  for  those  who 
are  in  need  of  them.  If  any  one  wanted  to 
take  those  grapes  from  us,  we  should  give  them 
up  without  the  slightest  resistance.  For  the 
same  reason  we  have  nothing:  to  fear  from  an 
invasion  of  barbarians.  If  they  wanted  to 


HAVE  THE  LIGHT. 


93 


deprive  us  of  the  products  of  our  labor,  we 
should  yield  them  up  at  once ; if  they  insisted 
on  our  working  for  them,  this  also  we  should 
do  with  joy ; and  not  only  would  the  barbarians 
have  no  cause  to  kill  us,  but  it  would  be  detri- 
mental to  what  they  consider  their  own  inter- 
ests to  do  so.  They  would  soon  get  to  under- 
stand us,  would  even  grow  to  love  us,  and  we 
should  have  less  to  suffer  from  them  than  we 
now  have  to  endure  from  the  enlightened 
people  in  whose  midst  we  live  and  by  whom  we 
are  persecuted. 

“ It  has  been  frequently  urged  by  you  and 
yours  that  it  is  only  in  consequence  of  the 
rights  of  property  being  respected  that  one  is 
enabled  to  obtain  all  those  articles  of  food  and 
clothing  with  which  people  are  nourished  and 
kept  alive.  But  weigh  the  matter  well,  and 
then  decide  for  yourself  — by  whom  are  all 
these  necessaries  of  life  really  produced  ? By 
whose  labor  are  those  riches  stored  up  and 
accumulated  of  which  you  are  so  proud  ? 
Is  it  by  those  who,  sitting  comfortably  with 
folded  arms,  command  their  slaves  and  mer- 


94 


WORK  WHILE  YE 


cenaries  to  go  hither  and  thither,  to  do  this 
and  that,  those  who  alone  possess  property  to 
enjoy ; or  is  it  not  rather  by  those  poor  neces- 
sitous workmen  who,  to  earn  a crust  of  bread, 
carry  out  their  lord’s  commands  while  they 
themselves  are  deprived  of  all  property,  and 
scarcely  receive  for  their  share  enough  to  keep 
them  alive  for  a single  day  ? And  what 
grounds  have  you  for  supposing  that  these 
workmen,  who  are  so  lavish  of  their  strength 
and  energy  now,  when  it  is  a question  of  exe- 
cuting orders  which  they  frequently  do  not 
even  understand,  will  give  up  every  kind  of 
exertion  the  moment  it  is  made  possible  for 
them  to  undertake  intelligible  and  moderate 
work,  the  results  of  which  will  benefit  them- 
selves and  those  whom  they  love  and  pity  ? 

“ The  accusations  you  launch  against  us  are 
mainly  these : that  we  do  not  completely  attain 
the  end  which  we  have  in  view,  and  that  we 
actually  deceive  others  when  we  say  that  we 
do  not  recognize  violence  and  property,  seeing 
that  we  enjoy  the  results  of  both.  Now,  if  we 
are  deceivers,  it  is  useless  to  waste  words  upon 


HAVE  THE  LIGHT. 


95 


us : we  are  fit  objects,  not  for  anger,  nor  for 
accusation,  but  for  scorn.  And  the  scorn  we 
joyfully  accept,  because  it  is  one  of  our  rules 
to  contemn  our  own  nothingness.  But  if  we 
sincerely  and  earnestly  strive  to  reach  the  end 
towards  which  we  profess  to  be  directing  all 
our  efforts,  then  your  accusations  appear 
unjust.  If  we  aspire  to  strive,  as  my  brethren 
and  myself  do,  to  live,  in  accordance  with  the 
law  laid  down  by  our  Master,  without  violence 
or  property,  which  is  none  of  its  fruits,  our 
object  in  doing  so  obviously  cannot  be  the 
attainment  of  material  ends,  the  acquisition  of 
riches,  power,  honors  — for  we  gain  none  of 
these  things  thereby  — but  something  wholly 
different.  We  are  quite  as  keen  as  you  Pagans 
are  in  the  search  of  happiness ; the  only  differ- 
ence between  us  consists  in  the  opposite  views 
we  take  of  what  constitutes  it.  You  place  it 
in  riches  and  honors,  we  in  something  very 
different.  Our  faith  tells  us  that  bliss  is  to  be 
found,  not  in  violence,  but  in  submission ; not 
in  riches,  but  in  giving  everything  away.  And 
even  as  the  flowers  struggle  upwards  towards 


96 


WORK  WHILE  YE 


the  light,  so  do  we  move  onwards  towards  what 
we  see  to  be  our  happiness.  We  do  not  carry 
out  everything  that  we  should  like  to  do  for 
the  attainment  of  our  happiness ; that  is  to  say, 
we  have  not  quite  succeeded  in  casting  off 
every  habit  of  violence  and  property.  This  is 
true.  But  could  it  well  be  otherwise?  Take 
yourself,  for  instance  : you  strain  every  nerve 
to  obtain  the  prettiest  wife,  to  acquire  the 
largest  fortune  — but  do  you,  does  any  one, 
succeed  in  this?  If  an  archer  does  not  hit  the 
target,  will  he,  because  he  has  missed  it  many 
times  in  succession,  cease  altogether  to  aim  at 
it?  We  are  in  exactly  the  same  position. 
Our  happiness  lies  — according  to  Christ’s 
teaching  — in  love  ; but  love  excludes  violence, 
and  property  — which  flows  from  violence.  W e 
are  all  of  us  bent  on  seeking  our  happiness, 
but  we  do  not  fully  succeed ; moreover,  wre  do 
not  all  set  about  it  in  precisely  the  same  way, 
nor  do  we  all  attain  it  to  the  same  extent.” 

“ Yes  ; but  why  do  you  refuse  to  listen  to  the 
accumulated  wisdom  of  mankind,  why  do  you 
turn  away  from  it  and  give  ear  only  to  your  own 


HAVE  THE  LIGHT. 


97 


crucified  master?  Your  thraldom,  your  servile 
submission  to  him,  is  precisely  what  most  of  all 
repels  us  in  you.” 

“ You  are  again  mistaken,  as  are  all  those 
who  imagine  that,  while  professing  the  teach- 
ings which  we  do,  we  believe  in  them  only 
because  the  man  in  whom  we  trust  commanded 
us  to  do  so.  On  the  contrary,  all  those  who 
with  their  whole  soul  seek  for  knowledge  of 
the  truth,  for  communion  with  the  Father,  all 
who  yearn  for  true  happiness,  involuntarily,  and 
without  conscious  effort,  find  themselves  travel- 
ling along  the  same  road  that  Christ  traversed, 
and,  instinctively  taking  their  stand  behind  Him, 
are  soon  aware  that  He  is  leading  the  way.  All 
who  love  God  will  converge  towards  and  finally 
meet  on  this  road  — yourself  among  the  num- 
ber. He  is  the  Son  of  God,  the  mediator 
between  God  and  man ; it  is  not  that  we  have 
been  told  this  by  some  one  and  therefore  blindly 
believe  it,  but  w'e  hold  it  to  be  true  because 
all  those  who  seek  God  find  His  Son  before 
them,  and  only  through  the  Son  do  they  under- 
stand, see,  and  know  God.” 


98 


WORK  WHILE  YE 


Julius  made  no  reply,  and  they  both  sat  for 
a considerable  time  in  unbroken  silence. 

“ Are  you  happy  ? ” he  asked  at  length. 

“ I desire  not  liiiiir  better  than  what  I have 
and  am.  Nor  is  this  all.  I am  continually 
experiencing  a feeling  of  perplexity,  a dim  con- 
sciousness of  injustice  somewhere.  Why  is  it 
that  I am  so  unspeakably  happy  ? ” exclaimed 
Pamphilius,  with  a smile. 

“ Yes,”  sighed  Julius  ; “ it  may  be  that  I,  too, 
should  have  been  happy,  happier  than  I am, 
had  I not  met  the  stranger  I told  you  of,  and 
had  I gone  over  to  you.” 

“ If  you  think  so,  what  is  keeping  you  back  ? ” 
“ How  about  my  wife  ? ” 

“ You  say  that  she  has  a leaning  towards 
Christianity  ; if  so,  she  will  join  us  along  with 
you. 

u True  : but  we  have  only  just  begun  a 
different  kind  of  life  ; would  it  be  wise  to  break 
it  up  thus  suddenly  ? We  have  begun  it  now, 
and  we  had  better  live  it  out  to  the  end/’  said 
Julius,  vividly  picturing  to  himself  the  dis- 
appointment of  his  father,  his  mother,  his 


HAVE  THE  LIGHT 


99 


friends,  if  he  were  to  become  a Christian, 
but  more  vividly  still  the  continuous  and  pain- 
ful effort  it  would  cost  him  to  effect  this  revo- 
lution. 

At  this  moment  the  young  girl,  Pamphilius’s 
friend,  accompanied  by  a youth,  came  up  to 
the  shop  door.  Pamphilius  went  out  to  them, 
and  the  youth  told  him,  in  the  presence  of 
Julius,  that  he  had  been  sent  by  Cyril  to 
buy  some  leather.  The  grapes  were  already 
sold  and  wheat  purchased  with  the  money 
received,  Pamphilius  proposed  that  the 
youth  should  return  home  with  Magdalen, 
bringing  the  wheat  with  them,  and  undertak- 
ing himself  to  buy  the  leather  and  carry  it 
home. 

“ It  will  be  better  for  you,”  he  urged. 

u No ; it  is  better  for  Magdalen  that  you 
should  go  with  her,”  the  youth  answered,  and 
went  away.  Julius  accompanied  his  friend  to 
the  stores  of  a merchant  with  whom  he  was 
acquainted,  where  Pamphilius  filled  the  sacks 
with  wheat,  handed  over  a small  portion  to 
Magdalen,  slung  his  own  heavy  burden  over 


100 


WORK  WHILE  YE 


his  shoulders,  said  good-by  to  his  friend,  and, 
walking  side  by  side  with  the  young  girl,  left 
the  city. 

At  a bend  in  the  street,  Pamphilius  looked 
back  and  smilingly  nodded  to  Julius,  and  then, 
smiling  still  more  joyfully,  made  some  remark 
to  Magdalen  as  they  disappeared  from  Julius’s 
horizon. 

“ Yes;  it  would  indeed  have  been  better  for 
me  had  I then  gone  over  to  the  Christians,” 
exclaimed  Julius  to  himself.  And  in  his  im- 
agination arose  two  pictures,  which  kept  alter- 
nating with  each  other : now  he  beheld  the 
robust  Pamphilius,  with  the  tall,  strong  girl, 
carrying  baskets  on  their  heads,  their  faces 
radiant  with  kindliness  and  joy ; now  he  saw 
his  own  domestic  hearth,  which  he  had  quitted 
that  morning  and  to  which  he  would  return  that 
night,  and  his  pampered,  pretty  wife,  whose 
charms  had  already  begun  to  pall  upon  him, 
decked  out  in  fine  apparel,  adorned  with  wrist- 
bands, and  lolling  on  rich  carpets  and  soft, 
yielding  cushions. 

But  Julius  had  little  time  for  thinking  — 


HAVE  THE  LIGHT. 


101 


he  was  accosted  first  by  some  merchants  who 
had  come  to  see  him,  then  by  comrades ; and 
they  entered  at  once  upon  the  usual  occupa- 
tions, which  wound  up  with  dinner  and  drink- 
ing, and  at  night  with  his  wife. 


CHAPTER  VI. 


Ten  years  passed  away ; and  during  all  that 
time  Julius  never  once  came  across  his  friend. 
He  thought  less  and  less  frequently  of  their 
former  meetings  and  discussions ; and  the  im- 
pressions they  had  created  in  his  mind  respect- 
ing Pamphilius  himself , and  the  life  of  the 
Christians  generally,  grew  gradually  dimmer 
and  dimmer,  till  at  last  they  seemed  to  have 
faded  away.  Julius’s  own  life  ran  in  the 
common  groove.  His  father  had  died,  and  he 
had  taken  over  the  entire  business  of  the  firm 
— a very  complicated  concern,  with  its  old 
customers,  its  salesmen  in  Africa,  its  clerks  at 
home,  its  debts  to  be  collected,  and  debts  to  he 
paid.  Julius  was  engrossed  in  business  in  spite 
of  himself,  and  gave  up  all  his  time  to  it.  Be- 


HAVE  THE  LIGHT. 


103 


sides,  he  had  the  new  cares  of  his  wife  to  bear. 
Then,  again,  he  was  elected  to  discharge  the 
duties  of  a civic  office ; and  this  new  occupa- 
tion, flattering  his  self-love,  delighted  him. 
From  that  time  forward,  in  addition  to  his 
business  affairs,  he  turned  his  attention  to 
public  matters,  and,  being  a man  of  parts,  and 
endowed  with  the  gift  of  flowing,  facile  speech, 
he  began  to  make  his  mark  among  his  fellow- 
citizens,  and  bade  fair  to  rise  in  time  to  the 
highest  civic  honors  in  his  native  place. 

Those  ten  years  had  likewise  wrought  con- 
siderable changes  in  the  sphere  of  his  family 
life  — changes  which,  to  him,  at  least,  were 
highly  distasteful.  He  was  now  the  father  of 
three  children,  and  one  of  the  effects  of  their 
birth  was  to  estrange  him  still  more  from  their 
mother.  In  the  first  place,  his  wife  had  lost 
much  of  her  former  freshness  and  beauty  ; and, 
in  the  next  place,  she  had  grown  less  solicitous 
about  her  husband  than  of  yore,  all  her  tender- 
ness and  caresses  being  lavished  upon  her 
offspring.  Although  the  children  were  con- 
fided to  the  care  of  wet  nurses  and  dry  nurses, 


104 


WORK  WHILE  YE 


as  was  the  custom  of  the  Pagans,  Julius  often 
found  them  in  their  mother’s  apartments,  or, 
having  looked  for  her  there  in  vain,  discovered 
her  in  her  children’s  room.  For  the  most  part, 
Julius  looked  upon  his  children  as  an  irksome 
burden  — a source  of  trouble  and  taxation 
rather  than  pleasure.  Absorbed  in  private  and 
municipal  affairs,  Julius  had  given  up  his 
former  dissolute  life  ; hut  he  considered  that 
he  stood  in  need  of  elegant  repose  after  his 
day’s  labors,  and  this  he  no  longer  found  in 
the  society  of  his  wife,  especially  as  her  inter- 
course with  her  female  slave  — a Christian  — 
grew  more  and  more  intimate,  and  she  allowed 
herself  to  be  carried  away  by  the  charm  of  the 
new  doctrine  to  such  an  extent  that  she  dis- 
carded from  her  life  all  the  outward  gloss  and 
varnish  of  Paganism,  by  which  Julius  set  such 
store.  Not  finding  in  his  wife’s  society  what 
he  sought  there,  Julius  cultivated  the  close 
friendship  of  a woman  of  light  conduct,  in 
whose  company  he  spent  those  leisure  moments 
which  remained  to  him  after  the  day’s  duties 
were  discharged.  If  you  were  to  ask  him 


HAVE  THE  LIGHT. 


105 


whether  he  was  happy  during  those  years  of  his 
life,  he  would  have  been  at  a loss  what  to 
answer  — so  numerous  and  absorbing  were  his 
occupations.  From  one  business  matter  or 
pleasure  he  rushed  rapidly  onwards  to  another ; 
but  not  one  of  them  was  of  a nature  thor- 
oughly to  satisfy  his  yearnings  ; of  not  one  of 
them  could  he  truly  say  that  he  desired  it  to 
last.  Every  serious  affair  he  took  in  hand  was 
such  that  the  sooner  he  accomplished  it,  and 
had  done  with  it,  the  easier  he  felt  in  mind ; 
and  there  was  not  one  of  his  pleasures  which 
was  not  poisoned  by  something  or  other,  not 
one  free  from  the  loathing  that  comes  of 
satiety. 

In  this  wise  the  stream  of  Julius’s  life  rolled 
smoothly  on,  till  one  day  an  untoward  event 
took  place  which  nearly  changed  its  whole 
course.  He  was  taking  part  in  the  Olympian 
games,  and  was  guiding  his  chariot  successfully 
towards  the  goal,  putting  forth  all  his  energies 
to  outstrip  another  chariot  that  was  slightly 
ahead  of  his,  when  he  dashed  up  against  it. 
One  of  the  wheels  of  his  chariot  snapped  in 


106 


WORK  WHILE  YE 


two,  lie  was  thrown  violently  out,  breaking  two 
ribs  and  his  arm.  The  injuries  he  sustained 
were  very  severe,  but  not  mortal ; he  was  con- 
veyed to  his  home,  and  was  confined  to  his  bed 
for  three  months. 

During  these  three  months  of  intense  physi- 
cal pain,  his  mind  became  unusually  active : he 
employed  his  enforced  leisure  in  meditating 
upon  his  life,  which  he  contemplated  from 
a purely  objective  point  of  view,  as  if  it  were 
the  life  of  a perfect  stranger. 

And  his  past  life  appeared  to  him  in  an  un- 
pleasant light,  which  was  intensified  by  the 
occurrence,  just  then,  of  three  disagreeable 
events,  which  occasioned  him  no  inconsiderable 
pain.  The  first  of  these  was  the  dishonesty 
of  an  old  and  trusted  slave,  who  had  loyally 
served  Julius’s  father  for  many  years,  but  now 
suddenly  absconded  with  a heap  of  precious 
stones  which  he  had  received  in  Africa  for  his 
master’s  firm,  thus  inflicting  heavy  losses  on 
Julius,  and  throwing  his  affairs  into  disorder. 
The  second  blow  w'as  the  inconstancy  of  his 
concubine,  who  unceremoniously  left  him  and 


HAVE  THE  LIGHT. 


107 


chose  another  protector  for  herself.  The 
third  and  most  painful  stroke  of  all  was  the 
election  of  his  rival  to  the  high  post  of  direc- 
tor, for  which  he  himself  was  a candidate  : the 
public  elections  took  place  during  his  illness, 
and  he  was  rejected.  All  these  reverses,  Julius 
was  convinced,  were  the  outcome  of  his  illness ; 
which,  in  turn,  resulted  from  his  chariot’s  hav- 
ing moved  just  half  an  inch  too  much  to  the 
left.  As  he  lay  thus  helpless  in  bed,  his 
thoughts  involuntarily  turned  on  the  trifling 
casualties  on  which  his  happiness  depended  ; 
and  then  dwelt  on  the  remembrance  of  his  pre- 
vious misfortunes,  his  attempt  to  become  a 
Christian,  and  on  Pamphilius,  whom  he  had  not 
seen  for  ten  years.  These  recollections  were 
refreshed  by  the  conversations  he  had  with 
his  wife,  who,  now  that  he  was  suffering  and 
in  bed,  used  to  pass  the  greater  part  of  her 
time  with  him,  telling  him  everything  she  had 
learned  from  her  female  slave  about  Christian- 
ity. This  slave  had  lived  for  a time  in  the  very 
community  in  which  Pamphilius  resided  and 
was  personally  acquainted  with  him.  Julius, 


108 


WORK  WHILE  YE 


on  hearing  this,  expressed  a wish  to  see  her, 
and,  when  she  drew  near  his  couch,  questioned 
her  in  great  detail  concerning  the  life  led  by 
the  Christians,  and  about  Pamphilius  in  par- 
ticular. 

Pamphilius,  she  told  him,  was  one  of  the 
best  members  of  the  brotherhood,  and  was  be- 
loved and  esteemed  by  all ; he  was  married  to 
that  same  Magdalen  with  whom  Julius  had 
seen  him  ten  years  before,  and  he  was  now  the 
father  of  several  children.  “ Yes,”  concluded 
the  slave ; “ those  who  doubt  that  God  created 
men  for  their  happiness,  should  pay  a visit  to 
that  community,  and  look  upon  Pamphilius 
and  Magdalen.” 

Julius  dismissed  the  slave  and  remained 
alone,  pondering  upon  the  significance  of  what 
he  had  heard.  He  was  smitten  by  a feeling 
of  envy,  whenever  he  compared  Pamphilius’s 
life  with  his  own,  and  he  resolved  to  drive 
such  thoughts  away.  In  order  to  distract 
himself  somewhat,  he  took  up  a Greek  manu- 
script, which  his  wife  had  left  for  him  to 
peruse,  and  read  the  following  : 


HAVE  THE  LIGHT. 


109 


“ There  are  two  roads,  leading,  the  one  to  life, 
the  other  to  death.  The  path  of  life  consists 
in  the  following  : In  the  first  place,  you  must 
love  God  who  created  you,  and,  in  the  second 
place,  love  your  neighbor  as  yourself ; and  do 
not  unto  another  that  which  you  would  not 
■wish  done  to  yourself.  The  teaching  implied 
in  these  words  may  be  expressed  thus : Bless 
those  that  curse  you ; pray  for  your  enemies, 
and  fast  for  your  persecutors ; for,  if  ye  love 
them  who  love  you,  what  thank  have  ye  ? Do 
not  the  heathens  do  even  so  ? Love  ye  them 
that  hate  you  and  ye  shall  have  no  enemies. 
Flee  the  lusts  of  the  flesh  and  the  world. 
Whosoever  shall  compel  thee  to  go  a mile,  go 
with  him  twain.  If  any  man  take  away  thy 
coat,  let  him  have  thy  shirt  also.  If  any  man 
take  what  is  thine,  seek  not  to  have  it  back, 
for  this  thou  canst  not.  Give  unto  every  one 
that  asketh,  and  demand  not  back  what  once 
thou  hast  given ; for  the  Father  willeth  that 
his  beneficent  gifts  be  bestowed  upon  all. 
Blessed  is  he  who  giveth  according  to  the 
commandment. 


110 


WORK  WHILE  YE 


“ The  second  sermon  of  the  doctrine  : Thou 
shalt  not  kill ; thou  shalt  not  commit  adultery  ; 
thou  shalt  not  commit  fornication ; thou  shalt 
not  steal ; thou  shalt  not  use  enchantment ; 
thou  shalt  not  poison ; thou  shalt  not  covet 
what  belongs  to  thy  neighbor.  Thou  shalt 
not  swear ; thou  shalt  not  bear  false  witness ; 
thou  shalt  not  speak  ill  of  any  one ; thou  shalt 
not  remember  evil.  Be  not  double-minded  ; 
he  not  double-tongued.  . . . Let  not  thy  word 
be  false,  nor  vain,  but  let  it  he  true  to  the 
deed.  Be  not  greedy  of  gain ; be  not  rapa- 
cious, nor  a hypocrite,  nor  malicious,  nor 
puffed  up.  Do  not  design  evil  play  against 
your  neighbor.  Do  not  foster  hatred  towards 
other  men,  but  admonish  some,  pray  for  others, 
and  love  others  more  than  thou  lovest  thine 
own  soul. 

“ My  child,  flee  evil  of  every  kind,  and  every- 
thing akin  to  evil.  Be  not  angry,  because 
anger  leads  up  to  murder  ; nor  jealous,  nor 
quarrelsome,  nor  hot-tempered,  for  the  outcome 
of  all  these  is  murder.  Be  not  lustful,  my 
son,  for  lust  leads  up  to  fornication  ; use  not 


HAVE  THE  LIGHT 


111 


loose  words  in  thy  conversation,  for  the  result 
thereof  is  adultery.  My  son,  do  not  practise 
sorcery,  cast  no  spells,  pronounce  no  charms, 
and  flee  those  who  do  such  things,  for  they  are 
idolatry.  My  son,  be  not  mendacious,  for 
lying  is  the  road  to  robbery ; be  not  greedy  of 
silver,  nor  of  honors,  for  robbery  comes  of 
these.  Be  not  querulous,  my  son,  for  this  is  a 
source  of  blasphemy ; nor  insolent,  nor  evil- 
minded,  for  blasphemy  is  the  fruit  of  all  these. 
But  be  meek,  for  the  meek  shall  inherit  the 
earth.  Be  patient,  and  kindly,  and  forgiving, 
and  lowly,  and  good.  Exalt  not  thyself  and 
frequent  not  the  proud,  but  converse  with  the 
just  and  the  humble.  Whatsoever  happeneth 
to  thee  welcome  as  a blessing,  knowing  that 

nothing  happens  against  God’s  will My 

son,  foment  not  divisions,  but  make  peace 
between  those  who  have  quarrelled.  Open  not 
wide  thy  palms  to  receive,  nor  narrow  them 
when  giving.  Do  not  shrink  from  giving 
away,  and  having  given,  murmur  not ; for 
thou  shalt  know  the  good  Dispenser  of  rewards. 
Turn  not  away  thy  face  from  the  needy,  but 


112 


WORK  WHILE  YE 


stand  by  thy  brother  in  all  things  ; call  noth- 
ing thine  own,  for  if  ye  are  heirs  and  co- 
partners in  the  incorruptible,  how  much  more 
in  what  is  perishable.  Teach  thy  children 
from  their  tender  years  to  fear  God.  Com- 
mand not  thy  servants  or  thy  slaves  in  anger, 
that  they  should  not  cease  to  fear  God  who 
rules  over  you  both,  for  He  cometh  not  to  call 
people  according  to  their  looks,  but  He  calls 
those  whom  the  Spirit  has  prepared. 

“ And  the  way  of  death  is  this : First  of  all, 
it  is  evil  and  full  of  curses ; and  there  is 
murder  upon  it,  and  adultery,  lust  and  fornica- 
tion, robbery  and  idolatry,  sorcery,  poisoning, 
rapacity,  false  witness,  hypocrisy,  double  deal- 
ing, cunning,  pride,  malice,  haughtiness,  greed, 
foul  language,  envy,  insolence,  arrogance,  self- 
love  ; here  are  to  be  found  the  persecutors  of 
the  just,  the  haters  of  truth  and  lovers  of  lies, 
they  who  deny  that  there  will  be  a reward  for 
the  just,  they  who  hold  aloof  from  what  is 
right  and  from  the  just  judgment,  those  who 
are  wakeful  not  for  righteous  but  for  evil 
purposes,  who  are  strangers  to  meekness  and  to 


HAVE  THE  LIGHT. 


113 


patience ; here  are  they  who  delight  in  vanity 
and  yearn  for  rewards,  who  feel  no  pity  for  the 
poor,  who  work  not  for  the  overworked,  who 
know  not  their  Creator,  the  murderers  of 
children,  who  shatter  God’s  image  to  pieces, 
who  turn  away  -from  the  needy,  trample  on  the 
oppressed,  defenders  of  the  rich,  unjust  judges 
of  the  poor,  sinners  in  all  things.  Be  on  your 
guard,  my  children,  with  all  such  persons.” 

Long  before  he  had  read  the  manuscript 
through,  he  felt  himself  in  the  position  in 
which  many  persons  find  themselves  when  they 
read  a book  — that  is  to  say,  other  people’s 
thoughts  — with  a sincere  desire  of  seeking  for 
truth  : their  souls  enter  into  communion  with 
those  who  suggested  the  thoughts.  He  kept 
on  reading,  divining  beforehand  what  was  to 
follow,  and  not  only  assenting  to  the  ideas  put 
forward,  but  himself,  as  it  were,  giving  them 
expression. 

There  then  occurred  to  him  something  so 
usual  and  seemingly  so  commonplace  that  it 
generally  escapes  our  notice,  and  is  yet  one 
of  the  most  mysterious,  most  momentous  phe- 


114 


WORK  WHILE  YE 


nomena  of  our  lives : it  consists  in  the  circum- 
stance that  a so-called  living'  man  becomes 
truly  alive  when  he  enters  into  communion, 
unites  himself,  with  the  so-called  dead,  living 
one  life  with  them.  Julius’s  soul  merged  itself 
in  those  of  the  writers  of  these  thoughts,  and 
after  this  intimate  communion  he  contemplated 
himself,  surveyed  his  own  life.  And  he  him- 
self and  his  whole  life  seemed  to  him  a terrible 
mistake.  He  had  not  lived ; but  he  had,  by 
all  his  cares  and  anxieties  about  life,  and  all  the 
temptations  he  had  succumbed  to,  destroyed  the 
very  possibility  of  true  life.  . 

“ I do  not  wish  to  trample  upon  and  quench 
my  life,”  he  exclaimed  to  himself ; “ I wish  to 
live,  to  take  the  road  that  leads  to  life.” 

All  that  Pamphilius  had  told  him  in  their 
former  conversations  rose  up  before  him  now 
with  the  vividness  and  force  of  ten  years 
before ; and  it  all  seemed  so  clear  and  obvious, 
that  he  was  astonished  that  he  could  have 
given  heed  to  the  words  of  the  stranger,  and 
foregone  his  intention  of  becoming  a Christian. 
One  piece  of  advice  which  the  stranger  had 


HAVE  THE  LIGHT. 


115 


given  him  also  recurred  to  him  : u When  you 
have  tasted  life , then , if  you  will , £/o  o^er  to 
the  Christians 

u I have  tasted  life/’  he  said  to  himself ; 
“ and  have  found  it  void  of  attraction,  void  of 
substance.”  He  likewise  called  to  mind  Pam- 
pliilius’s  promise  that  whenever  he  came  to  the 
Christians  he  would  be  sure  of  a cordial  recep- 
tion. 66  Enough/’  he  exclaimed ; “ 1 have 

erred  and  suffered  long  enough ; I will  now 
leave  everything,  and  become  a Christian,  and 
live  according  to  the  rules  laid  down  here.” 
He  informed  his  wife,  who  was  delighted  to 
hear  of  his  excellent  intention. 

She  was,  indeed,  ready  to  follow  him  in  all 
this.  The  only  question  now  was  how  to  set 
about  executing  his  plan.  What  was  to  be 
done  with  the  children  ? Should  they,  too,  be 
taken  and  baptized,  or  left  behind  with  their 
Pagan  grandmother?  Would  it  be  advisable, 
would  it  be  humane,  to  make  them  Christians, 
and  thus  expose  them  — after  years  of  com- 
fort and  luxury  — to  all  the  hardships  and 
privations  in  which  the  members  of  this  sect 


116 


HAVE  THE  LIGHT 


delighted?  The  female  slave  offered  to  go 
with  them,  and  watch  over  them  as  a Christian. 
But  the  mother’s  heart  would  not  allow  her  to 
consent  to  thi&.  She  insisted  on  leaving  them 
with  their  grandmother. 

Julius’s  approval  of  this  arrangement  re- 
moved the  only  serious  obstacle  in  the  way ; 
and  this  satisfactorily  disposed  of,  the  remain- 
ing preparations  were  at  once  begun,  by  Julius 
and  his  wife,  for  taking  the  most  momentous 
step  in  their  lives. 


CHAPTER  VII. 


At  last  all  the  preparations  were  concluded 
and  everything  finally  settled,  the  only  remain- 
ing difficulty  being  Julius’s  health  — his  wounds 
had  not  yet  healed  — which  compelled  him  to 
put  off  for  a few  days,  or  it  might  he  weeks,  the 
last  formal  act  that  would  sever  the  ties  that 
bound  him  to  the  religion,  traditions,  and  ways 
of  thinking  of  his  fathers,  and  introduce  him  to 
the  new  life  he  had  chosen.  One  night  he  fell 
asleep  in  the  same  resolute  mood  as  usual,  and 
on  awaking  next  morning  was  informed  that  a 
clever  physician,  who  chanced  to  be  passing 
through  the  town,  had  expressed  a desire  to  see 
him  and  undertake  to  restore  him  speedily  to 
health  and  strength.  Julius  was  delighted, 
said  he  would  see  the  physician  at  once,  and  a 


118 


WORK  WHILE  YE 


few  moments  later  was  exchanging  salutations 
with  the  identical  stranger  whom  he  had  met 
and  discoursed  with  many  years  before  on  his 
way  to  the  Christians. 

Having  carefully  examined  his  wounds,  the 
doctor  prescribed  a decoction  of  certain  simples 
which,  he  promised,  would  fortify  his  patient, 
and  hasten  his  recovery. 

u Shall  I ever  be  able  to  work  with  my 
hand  ? ” Julius  inquired. 

“ Oh,  certainly.  You  will  be  able  to  drive 
a chariot  as  deftly  as  ever  you  did,  and  to  write, 
too,  as  much  as  you  desire.” 

“ Yes,  but  I mean  hard  work  5 digging,  for 
instance  ? ” 

“ Well,  I confess  I had  not  that  kind  of  work 
in  mind,”  said  the  physician  j u because  a man 
in  your  position  never  need  take  to  anything  of 
that  kind.” 

“ O11  the  contrary,  that  is  precisely  the  kind 
of  labor  I shall  be  engaged  in,”  replied  Julius. 
And  he  thereupon  told  the  stranger  how  he  had 
scrupulously  acted  upon  his  advice  and  tasted 
life,  had  found  all  its  promises  deceitful,  and 


HAVE  THE  LIGHT. 


119 


now,  full  of  disappointment  and  dissatisfaction, 
was  firmly  resolved  to  carry  out  the  intention 
he  had  conceived  several  years  before,  and  join 
the  Christian  community. 

“Well,  they  must  have  spun  a very  pretty 
web  of  charming  falsehood  for  you,  have  enticed 
you  into  it,  and  hold  you,  now,  nicely  fastened 
up,  if  you,  a man  occupying  such  a high  social 
position,  with  onerous  and  honorable  duties  and 
responsibilities, — especially  in  respect  to  your 
children, — are  unable  to  penetrate  the  mask  and 
discern  their  errors.” 

“'Will  you  kindly  read  this?”  said  Julius, 
significantly,  in  reply,  handing  him  the  Greek 
manuscript  wdiich  he  had  himself  pondered  over 
some  days  before  with  such  wonderful  results. 

The  physician  took  the  scroll ; glanced  at  it. 

“ I know  this  fraud,”  he  exclaimed ; “ the 
only  thing  that  surprises  me  is  that  a man  of 
your  intellect  should  fall  into  such  a snare.” 

66 1 confess  I do  not  understand  you.  What 

o ** 

snare  c 

u The  pith  and  essence  of  the  whole  thing 
lies  in  one’s  conception  of  human  life  : and  here 


120 


WORK  WHILE  YE 


are  these  sophists  and  rebels  against  men  and 
gods  declaring  that  one  way  of  life  leads  to 
happiness,  and  defining  it  as  a kind  of  life 
organized  in  such  a way  that  all  men  are  to  be 
happy ; that  there  are  to  be  no  wars,  nor  execu- 
tions, nor  poverty,  nor  immorality,  nor  quarrels, 
nor  malice.  And  then  they  go  on  to  affirm 
that  all  these  conditions  will  be  realized  as  soon 
as  people  carry  out  Christ’s  commandments  not 
to  quarrel,  not  to  commit  fornication,  not  to 
swear,  not  to  do  violence,  not  to  egg  on  nation 
to  rise  up  against  nation.  But  the  fact  is  that 
they  are  deceiving  people  by  taking  the  end  for 
the  means.  The  real  aim  and  object  is  to  keep 
from  quarrelling,  from  swearing,  from  dissolute- 
ness, etc. ; and  the  only  way  of  attaining  it  is  by 
employing  the  means  afforded  by  social  life. 
Their  way  of  presenting  the  facts  is  about  as 
natural  and  logical  as  would  be  that  of  a teacher 
of  archery  who  should  say  to  his  pupil:  c You 
will  easily  hit  the  very  centre  of  the  target,  if 
you  only  let  your  arrow  fly  along  in  a perfectly 
straight  line  from  the  bow  to  the  point  to  be 
hit.’  The  question  is  how  to  make  the  arrow 


HAVE  THE  LIGHT, 


121 


fly  along  this  perfectly  straight  line  — that  is 
the  problem,  and  to  re-state  it  is  not  to  solve. 
In  archery  the  question  is  solved  by  fulfilling 
many  conditions,  such  as  having  your  bowstring 
tight,  your  bow  elastic,  your  arrow  straight,  etc. 
It  is  even  so  with  life.  The  best  kind  of  life  — 
which  will  exclude  or  greatly  lessen  quarrels, 
dissoluteness,  murders  — is  also  arrived  at  by 
having  your  bowstring  tight  — viz.,  wise  rulers  ; 
your  bow  elastic  — viz.,  power  invested  in  the 
authorities ; and  your  arrow  straight  — viz.,  the 
laws  just  and  impartial.  They,  under  pretext  of 
organizing  the  best  way  of  living,  demolish  all 
that  has  heretofore  bettered,  and  is  still  calcu- 
lated to  better,  human  life.  They  acknowledge 
no  rulers,  nor  authority,  nor  laws.” 

“ But  they  maintain  that  without  rulers, 
authority  and  laws,  human  existence  will  be  in 
all  respects  better,  if  only  people  will  fulfil 
the  law  of  Christ.” 

“ Yes ; but  what  guarantee  have  we  that 
people  will  fulfil  his  law  ? Absolutely  none. 
They  say : ‘ You  have  tried  life  with  authori- 
ties and  laws,  and  it  has  never  been  anything 


122 


WORK  WHILE  YE 


but  a failure.  Try  it  now  without  authorities 
and  laws,  and  you  will  soon  see  that  it  will 
become  perfect.  You  have  no  right  to  deny 
this,  not  having  put  it  to  the  test  of  experi- 
ence/ But  here  the  sophistry  of  these  im- 
pious men  is  manifest.  Speaking  in  this  tone, 
are  they  a whit  more  logical  than  the  agricul- 
turist who  should  say:  6 You  sow  the  seed  in 
the  ground  and  then  cover  it  up  with  earth, 
and  yet  the  harvest  crop  falls  far  below  what 
you  would  wish  it  to  be.  But  my  advice  to 
you  is,  sow  in  the  sea,  and  the  results  will  be 
far  more  satisfactory.  And  do  not  attempt  to 
meet  this  thesis  with  a bare  denial  — you  have 
no  right  to  do  so,  never  having  put  it  to  the 
test  of  experience.’  ” 

“ Yes ; there  is  much  truth  in  what  you 
say,”  answered  Julius,  beginning  to  falter  in 
his  resolution. 

“ Nor  is  this  all,”  continued  the  physician. 
“ Let  us  suppose  that  what  is  absurd  — nay, 
impossible  — has  come- to  pass,  that  the  funda- 
mental beliefs  and  practices  of  Christianity  can, 
in  some  mysterious  manner,  be  communicated 


HAVE  THE  LIGHT . 


123 


to  mankind,  by  means,  say,  of  medicinal  drops, 
and  that  suddenly  all  men  take  to  fulfilling 
Christ’s  teachings  - — loving  God  and  their 
neighbor,  and  obeying  the  commandments. 
Even  then,  I submit,  the  way  of  life  laid  down 
in  their  books  will  not  stand  fair  criticism. 
There  will  be  no  life ; life  will  cease  to  exist. 
Their  teacher  was  an  unmarried  tramp  ; his 
followers  will  be  - — according  to  our  supposi- 
tion — what  their  master  was  ; and  so  will  the 
whole  world.  Those  who  are  now  alive  will 
live  on,  but  their  children  will  not,  or  certainly 
not  more  than  one  in  ten  of  the  children  who 
would  otherwise  grow  up  to  manhood.  Ac- 
cording to  their  own  doctrine,  the  children 
should  and  would  be  all  equal,  parents  not 
preferring  their  own  children  to  those  of 
perfect  strangers.  Now,  how,  I ask,  will  these 
children  be  attended  to,  cared  for,  brought  up 
and  shielded  from  all  the  dangers  with  which 
life  bristles,  when  we  see  now  that  all  the 
passionate  love  which  nature  has  planted  in 
the  mother’s  breast  for  her  own  offspring  is 
scarcely  enough  to  preserve  children  from  ruin 


124 


WORK  WHILE  YE 


and  death  ? If  children  fall  like  grass  before 
the  scythe  now  that  the  conditions  are  most 
favorable  to  them,  what  will  it  be  when  the 
only  feeling  left  to  mothers  will  be  equal  pity 
for  all  children  ? Whose  child  will  a woman 
bring  up  and  educate  ? Who  will  sit  up 
wakeful  night  after  night  with  the  sick,  foul- 
smelling child,  if  not  the  mother  who  gave  it 
life  ? Nature  provided  the  child  wdth  a shield 
— motherly  love  ; they  tear  it  away,  and  put 
nothing  in  its  place.  Who  is  to  teach  the 
child,  to  train  it,  to  penetrate  to  its  very  soul, 
and  from  that  centre  shape  and  mould  it,  if 
not  its  own  father  ? Who  will  ward  off  danger’s 
and  suffering  from  it  ? All  this  is  taken  away 
by  Christianity  : nay,  life  itself  — I mean  the 
perpetuation  of  the  human  race  — is  taken 
away.” 

“ There,  too,  you  are  right,”  interrupted 
Julius,  who  was  carried  away  by  the  physician’s 
clear,  business-like,  eloquent  way  of  putting 
things. 

“ No,  my  friend,  turn  away  from  all  these 
wild  ravings,  and  live  in  accordance  with  the 


HAVE  THE  LIGHT. 


125 


dictates  of  reason ; especially  at  the  present 
time,  when  such  noble,  momentous,  and  urgent 
duties  still  weigh  upon  you.  To  fulfil  them 
is  a point  of  honor.  You  have  lived  to  enter 
upon  this  your  second  period  of  doubt,  and 
now,  if  you  will  only  march  onwards,  all  doubt 
will  vanish.  Your  first  and  most  urgent  obli- 
gation is  to  undertake  the  education  of  your 
children,  whom  you  have  hitherto  sadly  neg- 
lected. Your  duty  towards  them  consists  in 
making  them  worthy  servants  of  the  common- 
wealth. The  commonwealth  has  conferred 
upon  you  everything  you  possess,  and  now  it 
is  your  duty,  in  return,  to  give  the  common- 
wealth worthy  servants  in  the  persons  of  your 
children.  Another  obligation  you  are  under 
is  to  serve  society.  Failure  has  embittered 
and  disappointed  you ; this,  however,  is  hut  a 
passing  accident.  Nothing  worth  having  is 
ever  acquired  except  at  the  cost  of  efforts  and 
struggles ; and  it  is  only  the  hard-won  victory 
that  brings  the  joy  of  triumph.  Leave  it  to 
your  wife  to  amuse  herself  with  the  idle  gossip 
of  Christian  writers ; it  is  your  duty  to  be  a 


126 


HAVE  THE  LIGHT. 


man,  and  to  make  men  of  your  children. 
Begin  this  work  with  the  consciousness  that 
you  are  performing  your  duty,  and  all  your 
doubts  will  vanish  into  air,  for  they  are  but  the 
symptoms  and  results  of  your  morbid  state. 
Discharge  your  obligations  to  the  common- 
wealth by  faithfully  serving  it,  and  by  training 
up  your  children  to  serve  it ; make  them  inde- 
pendent, self-sacrificing,  fit  and  worthy  to  take 
your  place,  and  having  done  so,  test,  if  you 
will,  the  life  that  so  attracts  you ; but  until 
then  you  have  no  right  to  abandon  your 
present  work,  and  if  you  did  forsake  it  you 
would  find  nothing  but  disappointment  and 
suffering.” 


CHAPTER  VIII. 


W hether  it  was  the  effect  of  the  medicine, 
or  of  the  conversation  and  advice,  it  is  impos- 
sible to  say,  but  Julius  was  soon  restored  to 
his  normal  state  of  health  again,  and  all  his 
former  views  of  Christianity  seemed  to  him  but 
as  the  ravings  of  a madman. 

The  physician  after  a short  sojourn  left  the 
city,  and  a few  days  after  his  departure  Julius 
was  on  his  feet  again,  busy  following  his 
advice,  and  inaugurating  the  new  life  he  had 
outlined  for  him.  He  enraged  a teacher  for 
his  children,  but  he  reserved  to  himself  the 
chief  control  of  their  education  ; all  the  rest  of 
his  time  he  employed  in  the  conduct  of  public 
affairs,  in  which  his  success  was  marked  and 


128 


WORK  WHILE  YE 


rapid,  and  in  a very  short  space  of  time  he  had 
acquired  immense  influence  in  the  city. 

In  this  way  a twelvemonth  passed  away, 
during  which  he  was  never  once  troubled. by 
thoughts  about  the  Christians.  At  the  end  of 
the  year  he  was  appointed  to  judge  the  Chris- 
tians in  their  town,  which  was  not  very  far  off. 

A representative  of  the  Roman  emperor  had 
come  to  Cilicia  for  the  purpose  of  stamp- 
ing out  Christianity.  Julius  had  heard  of  the 
measures  put  in  force  against  the  Christians, 
hut,  not  supposing  that  they  concerned  the 
community  in  which  Pamphilius  lived,  he  never 
thought  of  his  friend  in  connection  with  the 
matter.  One  day,  as  he  was  walking  across 
the  public  square  on  his  way  to  his  tribunal,  a 
shabbily  dressed  old  man  — to  all  appearance 
a stranger  — came . hurrying  up  towards  him. 
This  badly  dressed  man  was  Pamphilius.  Pam- 
philius drew  near  and  accosted  him.  “ How 
are  you,  friend,”  he  said.  “ I have  a very 
urgent  and  important  request  to  make  — but  I 
do  not  know  whether,  during  this  cruel  perse- 
cution of  the  Christians,  you  care  to  look  upon 


HAVE  THE  LIGHT. 


129 


me  as  a friend,  or  whether  you  are  afraid  to 
lose  your  position  by  having  dealings  with  me.” 
“ I fear  no  man,”  answered  J ulius ; “ and 
that  you  may  have  no  misgivings  on  the  sub- 
ject, I will  ask  you  to  come  along  with  me  to 
my  house.  I will  even  let  my  work  stand  over, 
in  order  to  have  a chat  with  you,  and  to  render 
you  any  service  in  my  power.  Come  along. 
Whose  child  is  that  ? ” 

“ That’s  my  son.” 

“ But  I need  not  have  inquired.  I recognize 
your  traits  in  his  face.  I also  recognize  those 
blue  eyes  of  his,  and  deem  it  superfluous  to 
ask  who  is  your  wife.  It  cannot  be  any  one 
but  that  beautiful  girl  whom  I saw  with  you  in 
Tarsus  many  years  ago.  Those  are  her  eyes.” 
“ Your  guess  is  correct,”  answered  Pam- 
philius.  “ Shortly  after  you  and  I last  parted 
she  became  my  wife.” 

The  two  friends  entered  Julius’s  house. 
Julius  called  his  wife,  confided  the  boy  to  her 
care,  then  ushered  in  Pamphilius  to  his  own 
luxurious  apartment,  which  was  at  a consider- 
able distance  from  the  other  rooms,  remarking 


130 


WORK  WHILE  YE 


as  they  entered : “ Here  yon  can  talk  to  your 
heart’s  content,  and  nobody  will  ever  be  the 
wiser.  You  are  out  of  the  hearing  of  all  the 
world.” 

“ Oh,  I am  not  afraid  of  being  overheard  — 
quite  the  reverse.  Indeed,  the  request  I have 
to  make  is  not  that  the  Christians  who  have 
been  arrested  and  marked  out  for  death  should 
not  he  executed,  but  that  permission  should 
be  accorded  them  to  make  a public  profession 
of  their  faith.” 

And  Pamphilius  narrated  how  the  Chris- 
tians who  had  been  deprived  of  their  liberty 
by  the  authorities  had  sent  word  of  their  arrest 
from  the  prisons  in  which  they  were  confined 
to  the  members  of  their  community.  Then 
Cyril  the  elder,  aware  of  Pamphilius’s  friendly 
relations  with  Julius,  had  commissioned  him  to 
come  and  make  that  request  for  the  condemned 
Christians. 

The  prisoners  did  not  ask  to  be  pardoned. 
They  held  it  to  be  their  mission  in  life  to  bear 
witness  to  the  truth  of  Christ’s  teachings.  This 
testimony  they  could  give  by  a long  eighty 


HAVE  THE  LIGHT. 


131 


years’  life,  or  by  undergoing  the  pains  of  a 
cruel  death.  It  was  quite  immaterial  to  them 
in  which  of  these  two  ways  they  fulfilled  the 
main  object  of  their  existence  ; physical  death, 
which  in  the  long  run  was  inevitable,  had  no 
terrors  for  them,  and  it  was  quite  as  welcome 
now  as  fifty  years  hence ; but  they  were  vehe- 
mently desirous  that  their  lives  should  prove 
beneficial  to  their  fellows,  and,  to  make  sure  of 
this,  deputed  Pamphilius  to  ask  as  a boon  that 
their  trial  and  execution  should  take  place  in 
the  presence  of  the  people. 

Julius  was  astonished  at  Pamphilius’s  strange 
request,  but  promised  to  do  everything  that  de- 
pended on  him  to  have  it  granted. 

“ I have  promised  you  my  mediation,”  Julius 
said,  “ from  a feeling  of  friendship  for  yourself, 
and  from  a peculiar  disposition  to  kindliness 
which  you  always  succeed  in  awakening  within 
me.  At  the  same  time,  I feel  I ought  to  tell 
you  that  I consider  your  tenets  in  the  last 
degree  extravagant  and  mischievous.  I have  a 
right,  I think,  to  form  a judgment  upon  the 
subject,  seeing  that  I speak  from  experience. 


132 


WORK  WHILE  YE 


It  is  not  long  since  I myself,  in  a moment  of 
utter  dejection,  brought  on  by  disappointment 
and  disease,  shared  your  views,  and  shared, 
them  so  fully  that  I was  again  on  the  point  of  ' 
giving  up  everything  and  joining  your  sect.  I 
know  the  pivot  on  which  all  your  errors  turn, 
the  corner-stone  of  the  whole  system,  for  I 
have  myself  built  upon  it ; it  is  self-love,  faint- 
heartedness, and  debility  caused  by  disease. 
Yes  ; Christianity  is  a creed  for  women,  not  for 
men.” 

“ But  why  so  ? ” 

“ Because,  although,  on  the  one  hand,  you 
acknowledge  that  discord  and  the  numerous 
forms  of  violence  it  engenders  are  inborn  in 
human  nature,  you  refuse,  on  the  other  hand, 
to  hold  aloof  from  these  and  their  fruits,  and 
to  abandon  them  to  others  who  are  of  a differ- 
ent way  of  thinking ; and  so,  without  contrib- 
uting your  share  to  the  sum  of  human  efforts, 
you  are  not  above  reaping  all  the  advantages 
you  can  have  from  the  organization  of  the 
world,  which  you  know  to  be  founded  on  vio- 
lence. Is  this  fair?  The  world  has  always 


HAVE  THE  LIGHT. 


IOQ 

oo 

existed  through  and  by  means  of  its  rulers. 
They  take  upon  themselves  the  work  and  the 
responsibility  of  governing ; they  protect  us 
from  foreign  and  domestic  enemies.  We  sub- 
jects, in  return  for  this,  pay  our  rulers  deference 
and  homage,  obey  their  commands,  and,  when 
needful,  assist  them  to  serve  the  state. 

“ But  you  Christians  are  not  content  to  put 
your  shoulders  to  the  wheel,  and  work  for  the 
commonwealth  as  others  do ; you  must  rise 
gradually  higher  and  higher  in  the  obligation 
to  treat  others  as  your  superiors,  until  at  last 
you  are  able  to  consider  yourselves  Caesar’s 
equals.  Even  this  does  not  satisfy  you.  No  ; 
you  protest  against  tributes  and  taxes,  slavery, 
the  law  courts,  executions  and  wars — in  a word, 
against  all  those  institutions  which  hind  men 
together  and  keep  them  united.  If  people 
w’ere  to  give  ear  to  your  doctrines,  society 
would  very  quickly  fall  to  pieces  and  its  mem- 
bers return  to  their  pristine  savagery.  Living 
in  a state,  you  preach  the  destruction  of  the 
state ; you,  whose  very  existence  is  dependent 
on  that  of  the  state.  If  the  state  did  not  exist, 


134 


WORK  WHILE  YE 


you  and  your  brethren  would  never  have  been 
heard  of ; we  should  all  be  slaves  of  the  Scyths 
or  of  the  first  savage  tribes  who  discovered  us. 

“ You  are  like  a tumor  which  destroys  the 
body,  and  yet  lives  solely  upon  the  body.  The 
living  individual  body  struggles  with  and  anni- 
hilates the  tumor,  and  we  act,  and  cannot  hut 
act,  in  precisely  the  same  way  towards  you. 
Hence,  in  spite  of  my  promise  to  assist  you  to 
realize  your  wishes,  I look  upon  your  tenets 
as  exceedingly  pernicious  and  vile.  Yile,  be- 
cause I hold  that  to  gnaw  the  breast  that 
nourishes  you  is  neither  honorable  nor  just ; 
and  this  is  what  you  are  doing  who  are  willing 
to  profit  by  the  advantages  offered  by  the  com- 
monwealth, and  yet  not  only  refuse  to  move  a 
a finger  in  support  of  the  organization  by 
which  it  exists,  but  actually  endeavor  to  pull  it 
to  pieces.” 

“ There  would  be  much  truth  in  what  you 
advance,”  replied  Pamphilius,  “ if  our  life  cor- 
responded to  your  description  of  it.  But  you 
have  no  actual  experience  of  the  life  we  lead, 
and  your  notions  of  it  are  false  and  misleading. 


HAVE  TJIE  LIGHT. 


135 


“ The  means  of  livelihood  which  we  make 
use  of  are  readily  obtainable  without  recurring 
to  any  form  of  violence  whatever  ; and  man  is 
so  constituted  that,  so  long  as  he  is  in  normal 
health,  he  can  obtain  by  the  work  of  his  hands 
more  than  he  requires  for  the  support  of  his 
life.  Living  together  in  common,  we  are  able 
by  the  work  of  our  hands  to  maintain  our  chil- 
dren and  old  folks,  our  sick  and  infirm. 

“ You  assert  that  your  rulers  protect  men 
from  their  foreign  and  domestic  enemies.  But 
we  love  our  enemies  — and  consequently  have 
none. 

“ You  contend  that  we  Christians  arouse  in 
the  breast  of  the  slave  a desire  to  be  a Caesar. 
In  truth,  we  do  to  the  contrary : by  word  and 
deed  we  preach  patient  humility  and  work  — 
work  of  what  is  considered  the  lowest  kind  — 
the  work  of  the  common  day-laborer. 

“ About  affairs  of  state  we  know  nothing, 
understand  nothing.  We  know  but  one  thing 
in  that  sphere,  but  that  we  know  thoroughly, 
beyond  the  possibility  of  doubt ; namely,  that 
our  happiness  lies  where  the  happiness  of  other 


136 


WORK  WHILE  YE 


people  is  to  be  found,  and  it  is  there  that  we 
always  seek  it.  The  happiness  of  all  men  con- 
sists in  their  union ; and  their  union  must  be 
brought  about,  not  by  violence,  but  by  love. 
The  violence  of  a highwayman  towards  a way- 
farer is  to  our  thinking  neither  more  nor 
less  abominable  than  the  violence  employed  by 
troops  against  their  prisoner,  or  by  the  judge 
against  the  condemned  culprit ; and  it  is  impos- 
sible that  we  should  deliberately  consent  to  have 
hand  or  part  in  one  or  the  other.  Violence  is 
reflected  in  us  ; but  our  share  in  it  consists,  not 
in  actively  applying  it  against  others,  but  in 
submitting  to  it  without  protest.” 

“Yes,”  interrupted  Julius;  “but  you  only 
seem  to  be  martyrs,  and  to  be  ever  eager  to  lay 
down  your  lives  for  the  truth.  In  reality,  truth 
is  not  on  your  side  ; you  are  proud  madcaps 
engaged  in  sapping  the  foundations  of  social 
life.  In  words  you  preach  love,  but  it  needs 
no  very  searching  analysis  of  the  results  that 
flow  from  that  love  of  yours  to  discover  that  it 
should  be  called  by  a very  different  name  ; for 
the  results  in  question  are  savagery,  retrogression 


HAVE  THE  LIGHT. 


1.37 


to  the  primitive  state  of  nature,  murders,  rob- 
bery, violence  of  all  kinds,  etc.,  which  according 
to  your  doctrines  must  not  be  opposed  or  checked 
in  any  way.’' 

“ No  ; that  is  not  so,”  rejoined  Pamphilius. 
“ And  if  you  will  only  consider  carefully  and 
impartially  what  results  from  our  teaching  and 
our  living,  you  will  see,  without  my  pointing  it 
out,  not  only  that  murders,  violence,  and  robbery 
do  not  flow  from  them,  but  that,  on  the  contrary, 
crimes  of  this  nature  cannot  be  successfully 
rooted  out  otherwise  than  by  employing  the 
means  we  advocate.  Murder,  robbery,  and 
every  kind  of  evil  existed  in  the  world  long 
before  Christianity  appeared  there,  and  people 
grappled  with  them  in  vain,  employing  those 
means  the  efficacy  of  which  we  deny.  These 
expedients,  which  all  consist  in  meeting  violence 
with  violence,  do  not,  cannot,  check  crime ; but 
they  provoke  it,  by  arousing  in  individuals  feel- 
ings of  anger  and  bitterness. 

“Just  look  at  the  mighty  Roman  Empire. 
In  no  other  country  have  such  pains  been  taken 
to  npply  the  laws  as  in  Rome.  The  study  and 


138 


WORK  WHILE  YE 


delicate  adjustment  of  the  legislation  to  the 
varying  wants  of  the  people  have  been  raised  to 
the  rank  of  a special  science  there.  The  laws 
are  taught  in  the  schools,  discussed  in  the  sen- 
ate, reformed  and  administered  by  the  most 
gifted  citizens.  Legal  justice  is  regarded  as 
one  of  the  noblest  human  achievements,  and  the 
office  of  judge  is  held  in  the  highest  esteem. 
And  yet  it  is  known  to  every  one  that  there  is 
no  city  existing  at  the  present  moment,  through- 
out the  length  and  breadth  of  God’s  earth, 
which  has  sunk  so  deeply  in  the  ooze  of 
debauchery  and  crime  as  Rome.  Call  to  mind 
the  history  of  Rome,  and  you  will  be  struck  by 
the  fact  that  the  Roman  people  were  distin- 
guished by  many  virtues  in  remoter  times,  not- 
withstanding the  circumstance  that  the  laws 
then  were  neither  so  numerous,  nor  drawn  up 
with  such  a careful  eye  to  the  end  in  view,  as  at 
the  present  time.  Now-a-days,  side  by  side 
with  the  study,  adjustment,  and  application  of 
the  laws,  we  observe  a steady  deterioration  in  the 
morals  of  the  Roman  people ; the  number  of 
crimes  continues  to  increase,  and  the  species  of 


HAVE  THE  LIGHT. 


139 


criminal  offences  grow  more  various  and  artifi- 
cial every  day. 

“To  grapple  successfully  with  crimes,  or 
with  any  description  of  evil,  is  possible  only  by 
employing  the  means  which  Christianity  places 
within  our  reach  — viz.,  love ; the  Pagan 
weapons  of  vengeance,  punishment,  violence, 
are  absurdly  inefficacious.  I am  sure  that  you 
yourself  would  like  to  see  people  refraining 
from  doing  evil,  not  from  fear  of  punishment, 
but  from  a lack  of  desire  to  do  what  is  wrong. 
Surely  you  would  not  wish  mankind  to  resemble 
the  wretches  confined  in  prison,  who  abstain 
from  committing  crime  only  because  they  are 
continually  watched  and  kept  in  order  by  their 
gaolers.  All  the  preventive  and  remedial  laws 
and  punishments  in  the  world  will  not  root  out 
people’s  propensities  to  do  wrong  and  put 
a desire  to  do  right  in  its  place.  The  result 
can  be  accomplished  only  when  you  deal  with 
the  root  of  the  evil  which  you  seek  to  erad- 
icate ; and  the  root  lies  inside  the  individ- 
ual. And  to  do  this  is  our  aim  and  object, 
whereas  you  confine  yourself  to  the  outward 


140 


WORK  WHILE  YE 


manifestations  of  the  evil.  You  can  never 
hope  to  reach  its  source,  because  you  do  not 
seek  for  it,  you  do  not  know  where  it  is  hidden. 

“ The  most  common  and  prevalent  crimes, 
such  as  murder,  robbery,  theft,  fraud,  have  their 
source  in  men’s  desire  to  increase  their  stock  of 
this  world’s  goods,  or  simply  to  obtain  the  bare 
necessities  of  life,  which  for  one  reason  or 
another  they  cannot  procure  in  any  other  way. 
Some  of  these  crimes  are  punished  by  the  law, 
although  those  which  are  the  most  complicated 
and  wide  reaching  in  their  effects  are  committed 
under  the  protecting  wing  of  this  same  law  ; 
such,  for  instance,  as  huge  commercial  frauds, 
and  the  endless  ways  of  stripping  the  poor  of 
their  possessions  which  are  constantly  practised 
by  the  rich.  Those  crimes  which  are  punished 
by  the  law  are  to  a certain  extent  checked  or 
rather  made  more  difficult,  and  the  criminals  are 
driven,  by  fear  of  incurring  the  penalty,  to  set 
to  work  more  prudently  and  cunningly  than 
would  be  otherwise  necessary,  devising  new 
species  of  crime  which  the  law  cannot  punish. 
By  practising  the  teachings  of  the  Christian 


HAVE  THE  LIGHT 


141 


religion  a man  keeps  clear  of  all  such  crimes 
as  arise  either  from  the  scramble  for  riches  or 
from  the  unequal  distribution  of  wealth,  great 
quantities  of  which  are  accumulated  in  the 
hands  of  a few.  We  take  away  all  motive  to 
crime,  to  robbery,  and  murder,  solely  by 
refusing  to  take  for  ourselves  more  than  what 
is  strictly  indispensable  for  the  support  of  life, 
and  by  giving  up  to  others  all  our  free  labor  ; 
thus  it  is  that  we  never  tempt  others  by  the 
sight  of  accumulated  wealth,  for  we  rarely 
possess  more  than  is  absolutely  necessary  for  our 
day’s  support.  Hence,  if  a man  who  is  driven 
to  despair  by  the  pains  of  hunger,  and  is  ready 
to  commit  a crime  in  order  to  procure  a crust 
of  bread,  comes  to  us,  he  will  find  what  he  is 
in  search  of,  without  having  recourse  to  crime 
or  violence,  inasmuch  as  we  live  for  the  pur- 
pose of  sharing  our  last  morsel  of  food,  our 
last  shred  of  clothes,  with  those  who  are  suffer- 
ing from  hunger  and  cold.  And  the  result  is 
that  one  class  of  criminals  avoids  us  altogether, 
while  the  others  come  over  to  us,  find  sal- 
vation, abandon  their  criminal  life,  and  little 


142 


WORK  WHILE  YE 


by  little  become  useful  workers,  toiling  like  the 
others  for  the  common  good  of  all  mankind. 

“ Another  category  of  crime  consists  of  those 
offences  which  are  provoked  by  the  play  of  un- 
bridled passions ; of  vengeance,  for  instance, 
jealousy,  carnal  love,  anger,  hatred.  Criminal 
acts  of  this  species  are  never  prevented  by 
laws.  The  individual  about  to  commit  them 
is  in  a state  of  animal  irresponsibility,  — of 
perfect  freedom  from  all  moral  restraints ; and 
thus  blinded  and  swayed  by  his  passion,  he  is 
utterly  incapable  of  gauging  the  tendency,  or 
weighing  the  results,  of  his  actions.  An  obsta- 
cle only  serves  to  fan  the  flame  of  his  passion. 
Laws,  therefore,  are  perfectly  useless  as  instru- 
ments for  suppressing  such  crimes.  Our 
method  of  tackling  them  is  efficacious.  We 
believe  that  man  will  never  attain  the  satisfac- 
tion and  the  aim  of  life  by  ministering  to  his 
passions,  or  anywhere  except  within  himself  in 
his  own  soul.  We  endeavor,  therefore,  to  tame 
and  curb  our  passions  by  a life  of  labor  and  of 
love,  developing  thereby,  in  a corresponding 
degree,  the  force  and  suppleness  of  the  spiritual 


HAVE  THE  LIGHT 


143 


principle  within  ^ us ; and  in  proportion  as  our 
number  becomes  larger,  and  our  faith  pene- 
trates farther  and  deeper  among  men,  will  the 
number  of  such  crimes  become  less. 

“ Finally,  there  is  still  another  class  of  crimes 
which  have  their  root  in  a sincere  desire  to 
help  one’s  fellow-creatures.  The  desire  to  alle- 
viate the  sufferings  of  an  entire  people,  for 
instance,  impels  some  men  — conspirators  they 
are  called  — to  kill  a tyrant,  in  the  belief  that 
they  are  thereby  benefiting  the  majority.  The 
source  of  such  crimes  is  a mistaken  conviction 
that  evil  may  be  perpetrated,  in  order  that 
good  may  follow.  Now  crimes  of  this  descrip- 
tion are  not  only  not  prevented,  or  their 
number  lessened,  by  the  promulgation  and  ap- 
plication of  legal  pains  and  penalties,  but  they 
are  positively  provoked  thereby.  The  persons 
who  commit  offences  of  this  kind,  although 
grievously  mistaken  in  their  hopes  and  beliefs, 
are  impelled  to  act  as  they  do  by  a noble  motive 
— a desire  to  do  good  to  others.  Most  of  these 
men,  if  sincere,  are  ready  to  lay  down' all  they 
have  and  are  for  the  attainment  of  their  end, 


144 


WORK  WHILE  YE 


they  quail  before  no  dangers  or  difficulties. 
Heipce,  years  of  punishment  are  powerless  to 
restrain  or  cause  them  to  hesitate.  On  the  con- 
trary, dangers  infuse  new  life  and  spirit  into 
them ; their  sufferings  raise  them  to  the  dignity 
of  martyrs,  earn  for  them  the  sympathy  of  most 
men,  and  stimulate  many  others  to  go  and  do 
likewise.  This  is  confirmed  by  the  history  of 
any,  of  every,  people. 

“ We  Christians  believe  that  the  evil  will  not 
cease  entirely  until  all  men  get  to  understand 
the  gravity  of  the  misfortunes  it  causes  to 
themselves  and  to  others.  We  also  knovr  that 
a brotherhood  cannot  be  founded  until  every 
one  of  us  is  himself  a brother ; that  a brother- 
hood cannot  be  organized  without  brethren. 
Therefore,  we  Christians,  although  we  clearly 
perceive  the  error  of  such  conspirators,  cannot 
but  appreciate  their  sincerity  and  self-denial, 
and  we  draw  near  them,  and  meet  them  on  the 
common  ground  of  the  positive  good  which  it 
must  be  admitted  they  possess. 

“ In  us  they  recognize,  not  foes,  but  people 
quite  as  sincere  and  as  eagerly  bent  on  doing 


HAVE  THE  LIGHT. 


145 


good  as  they  are  themselves ; and  many  of 
them  come  over  to  us,  after  having  acquired 
the  conviction  that  a quiet  life  of  toil  and  un- 
ceasing solicitude  for  the  welfare  of  others  is 
incomparably  more  beneficial  to  mankind  and 
a more  difficult  achievement  than  their  momen- 
tary feats  of  prowess,  which  are  stained  by  the 
blood  of  human  life  needlessly  sacrificed.  And 
those  conspirators  who  in  this  belief  join  our 
body  are  always  found  among  the  most  active 
and  vigorous  members  of  our  community,  both 
in  body  and  in  spirit. 

u You  have  now  data  enough,  Julius,  to 
decide  for  yourself  who  it  is  that  grapples 
more  successfully  with  all  kinds  of  crime 
and  contributes  more  efficaciously  to  suppress 
it,  — we  Christians  who  preach  and  demon- 
strate the  joy  and  light  of  a spiritual  life, 
from  which  no  evil  can  arise,  we  whose  aims 
are  example  and  love,  or  your  rulers  and 
judges  who  pass  sentences  according  to  the  let- 
ter of  a dead  law,  and  finish  by  rescuing  their 
victims,  or  lashing  them  into  fury  and  driving 
them  to  the  uttermost  extreme  of  hatred.” 


146 


WORK  WHILE  YE 


I “ As  long  as  I keep  listening  to  you,”  re- 
plied J ulius,  “ I certainly  seem  to  get  the 
impression  that  your  point  of  view  is  the 
correct  one.  But  will  you  explain  to  me, 
Pamphilius,  how  it  is  that  people  persecute 
you,  hunt  you  down,  kill  you  ? How,  in  a word, 
your  doctrine  of  love  can  beget  such  discord 
and  strife  ? ” 

“ The  source  of  this  seeming  anomaly  is 
not  in  us,  it  is  outside  us.  I alluded,  a few 
moments  ago,  to  a class  of  crimes  which  are 
condemned  as  crimes  both  by  the  state  and  by 
us.  These  crimes  consist  of  a form  of  vio- 
lence which  transgresses  the  laws  established 
for  the  time  being  in  any  state.  But,  besides 
and  above  these  laws,  people  recognize  other 
laws  which  are  eternal,  common  to  all  mankind, 
engraved  in  the  hearts  of  all  human  beings. 
W e Christians  obey  these  divine  universal  laws, 
and  discern  in  the  words  and  life  of  our 
Teacher  their  fittest,  clearest,  and  fullest  ex- 
pression. This  is  why  we  have  come  to  con- 
demn as  a crime  every  form  of  violence  which 
transgresses  any  one  of  Christ’s  command- 


HAVE  THE  LIGHT. 


147 


merits,  in  all  of  which  we  see  the  expression 
of  God’s  law.  We  admit  that,  in  order  to 
remove,  when  possible,  all  pretext  for  the 
manifestation  of  ill-will  against  us,  wre  are 
hound  to  observe  the  civil  laws  of  the  country 
in  which  we  reside.  But  higher  than  all  else 
we  place  the  law  of  God,  which  guides  our 
conscience  and  our  reason ; and  we  can  there- 
fore obey  only  such  laws  of  the  state  as  are  not 
opposed  to  those  of  God.  Let  Caesar  have 
what  is  his  of  light ; but  to  God  we  must 
render  all  that  is  God’s.  The  crimes  which  we 
are  intent  on  avoiding  and  suppressing  are  not 
merely  transgressions  against  the  laws  of  the 
states  in  which  we  were  born  and  must  live, 
but  first  and  foremost  every  species  of  violation 
of  God’s  will,  which  is  a law  common  to  the 
whole  human  race.  Hence,  our  struggle  with 
crime  is  more  comprehensive  and  more  pro- 
found than  yours,  wdiich  is  carried  on  by  the 
state. 

Now,  this  recognition  by  us  of  God’s  will  as 
the  highest  law  shocks  and  incenses  those  who 
give  the  first  place  to  a private  law  — to  the 


148 


WORK  WHILE  YE 


legislative  measures  of  a state,  for  instance, 
or  — as  is  often  the  case  — who  raise  a custom 
of  their  class  to  the  dignity  of  a law.  These 
individuals,  unwilling  or  unable  to  become  men 
in  the  true  sense  of  the  word,  in  the  sense  in 
which  Christ  said  that  truth  would  make  us 
free  men,  are  satisfied  with  the  position  of 
subjects  of  this  or  that  state,  or  members  of 
this  or  that  society,  and  they  are  naturally 
animated  by  feelings  of  enmity  for  those  who 
see  and  proclaim  that  man  has  a much  higher 
destiny,  a far  nobler  mission.  Unable  to  dis- 
cern, reluctant  to  admit  this  higher  destiny  for 
themselves,  they  refuse  to  acknowledge  it  for 
others.  Concerning  them  Christ  said  : 6 Woe 
unto  you,  lawyers  ! for  ye  have  taken  away  the 
key  of  knowledge  : ye  entered  not  in  your- 
selves, and  them  that  were  entering  in  you 
hindered.’  They  are  the  originators  of  that 
persecution  against  us  which  puzzles  you. 

“ We  ourselves  entertain  feelings  of  enmity 
for  no  man  — not  even  for  those  who  thus 
pursue  and  persecute  us,  and  our  manner  of 
life  inflicts  no  harm  o^  loss  on  any  one.  If 


HAVE  THE  LIGHT 


149 


people  are  incensed  against  us,  if  they  foster 
feelings  of  hatred  towards  us,  the  only  possible 
reason  is  that  our  life  is  a constant  rebuke  to 
them,  a condemnation  of  their  conduct,  founded 
as  it  is  upon  violence.  To  put  an  end  to  that 
enmity,  the  cause  of  which  does  not  lie  with 
us,  is  beyond  our  power,  for  we  cannot  cease 
to  comprehend  the  truth  which  we  have  already 
comprehended;  we  cannot  live  against  our 
conscience  and  our  reason.  Concerning  that 
same  hostility  to  us,  which  our  faith  arouses  in 
others,  our  Teacher  said  : 6 Think  not  that  I 
am  come  to  send  peace  : I came  not  to  send 
peace  but  a sword.’  Christ  felt  the  effects  of 
this  hatred  on  His  own  person,  and  he  warned 
us,  His  followers,  many  times,  that  we  too 
should  experience  it.  c Me/  He  said  once, 
6 the  world  hateth,  because  I testify  of  it,  that 
the  works  thereof  are  evil.  If  ye  were  of  the 
world,  the  world  would  love  his  own ; but 
because  ye  are  not  of  the  world,  but  I have 
chosen  you  out  of  the  world,  therefore  the 
world  hateth  you ; and  the  time  will  come 
when  he  who  kills  you  will  think  that  he  has 


\ 150 


WORK  WHILE  YE 


served  God.’  But,  strengthened  by  Christ’s 
example,  we,  like  Him,  do  not  fear  those  who 
kill  the  body,  for  they  can  do  nothing  more. 
Illumined  by  the  rays  of  truth,  we  live  in  its 
light,  and  our  life  knows  not  death.  Physical 
suffering  and  death  no  man  can  escape  A 
time  will  come  when  our  executioners  will  also 
suffer  in  body  and  die,  and  it  is  horrible  to 
think  how  the  unfortunate,  helpless  creatures 
will  he  tortured  at  the  sight  of  death,  which 
will  strip  them  of  all  that  they  acquired  at  the 
cost  of  such  arduous  labor  continued  through- 
out their  lifetime.  Thanks  to  God  that  we 
are  guaranteed  against  the  most  frightful  of 
all  suffering ; for  the  happiness  for  which  we 
yearn  consists  not  in  immunity  from  bodily 
pain  and  death,  but  in  the  preservation  and 
development  of  equanimity  in  all  the  vicissi- 
tudes of  life,  in  the  consoling  conviction  that 
whatever  happens  to  us  independently  of  our 
own  will  is  unavoidable,  and  for  our  ultimate 
good  ; and,  above  all,  in  the  knowledge  that  we 
are  true  to  our  conscience  and  our  reason  — 
these  noble  lights  bestowed  upon  man  by  the 


HAVE  THE  LIGHT. 


151 


Source  of  Truth.  And  thus  we  suffer  nothing 
from  those  who  hate  and  persecute  us.  It  is 
not  we,  hut  they,  who  smart  from  the  stings  of 
that  enmity,  that  hatred,  which,  like  a snake  in 
their  bosom,  they  nurture  in  their  hearts. 
c And  this  is  their  condemnation,  that  light  is 
come  into  the  world,  and  men  loved  darkness 
rather  than  light,  because  their  deeds  were 
evil/  There  is  nothing  to  perplex  or  trouble 
us  in  all  that ; for  truth  will  do  its  work.  The 
sheep  hear  the  voice  of  their  shepherd,  and 
they  follow  him,  becausa  they  know  his  voice. 

“ And  Christ’s  flock  will  not  perish,  but  will 
grow  and  thrive,  attracting  ever  new  sheep 
from  all  parts  of  the  world ; for  the  wind 
bloweth  where  it  listeth,  and  thou  hearest  the 
sound  thereof,  but  canst  not  tell  whence  it 
cometh,  and  whither  it  goeth.” 


CHAPTER  IX. 


While  he  was  still  speaking,  Pamphilius’s 
little  son  rushed  into  the  apartment  and  hugged 
and  clasped  his  father.  In  spite  of  all  the 
coaxing  and  caresses,  he  had  run  away  from 
Julius’s  wife,  and  now  took  shelter  in  his 
father’s  embrace. 

Pamphilius  sighed,  fondled  his  boy,  rose  up 
and  was  about  to  depart,  but  Julius  detained 
him,  requested  him  to  continue  the  conversation 
and  stay  for  dinner. 

“I  am  astonished,  I confess,”  said  Julius, 
“that  you  should  be  married  and  have  children. 
It  is  a mystery  to  me  how  you  Christians  can 
bring  up  your  children,  in  spite  of  the  absence 
of  property ; how  Christian  mothers  can  attain 
peace  of  mind,  knowing,  as  they  do,  how  pre- 


HAVE  THE  LIGHT. 


153 


carious  is  the  future  of  their  offspring,  and 
how  powerless  they  are  to  put  their  children 
beyond  the  reach  of  want.” 

“ In  what  respect  are  our  children  worse  off 
than  yours  ? ” asked  Pamphilius. 

“ In  this  respect,  that  they  have  no  slaves  to 
look  after  them,  no  property  of  any  kind  to 
fall  back  upon.  My  wife  is  very  favorably 
disposed  to  Christianity,  in  fact  at  one  time  she 
was  firmly  bent  on  abandoning  her  present  life 
and  becoming  a Christian.  That  was  several 
years  ago  — I,  too,  was  then  resolved  to  ac- 
company her.  But  what  frightened  her  more 
than  anything  else  was  the  precariousness  of 
the  position  of  Christian  children,  the  want  to 
which  they  are  exposed.  And  I must  say  I 
could  not  but  agree  with  her.  That  was  when 
I was  ill  and  confined  to  my  bed.  I was 
then  thoroughly  disgusted  with  the  life  I had 
been  leading,  and  had  taken  the  resolution  to 
forsake  it  once  for  all,  and  join  your  com- 
munity. But  the  apprehensions  of  my  wife,  on 
the  one  hand,  and  the  arguments  of  the 
physician  who  attended  me  and  brought  me 


154 


WORK  WHILE  YE 


round,  on  the  other  hand,  impressed  me  with 
the  conviction  that  the  life  of  a Christian — at 
least,  as  you  understand  and  practise  it  — is 
possible  and  beneficial  only  when  those  who 
embrace  it  are  unmarried ; but  that  persons 
with  families,  mothers  Avith  children,  are  ut- 
terly unsuited  for  it  and  should  never  think  of 
trying  it.  Furthermore,  that  the  upshot  of  the 
life  you  approve  and  lead  will  be  the  cessation 
of  all  human  life ; that  is  to  say,  the  extinction 
of  the  race.  This  is  a fact  which  there  is  no 
getting  o\rer.  And,  under  such  circumstances, 
I was,  I confess,  rather  surprised  to  see  you 
appear  with  a child  by  your  side.” 

“ And  not  one  only,  I may  add  ; for  I left 
at  home  a child  in  arms  and  a girl  of  three 
years.” 

“ W ell,  will  you  explain  how  it  is  done  ? 
Do  Avhat  I Avill,  I positively  cannot  understand 
it.  A feAV  years  ago  I was,  as  I remarked,  on 
the  point  of  forswearing  my  worldly  life,  and 
embracing  Christianity.  But  I was  the  father 
of  children,  and  I felt  that,  however  distasteful 
the  fact  might  he  to  me,  it  still  remained  a 


HAVE  THE  LIGHT. 


155 


fact  that  I liad  no  right  to  sacrifice  my  chil- 
dren ; and,  recognizing  this,  I stayed  on,  leading 
my  old  life,  for  their  sakes,  in  order  to  bring 
them  up  in  the  same  conditions  as  those  in 
which  I was  educated  myself.” 

“ It  is  very  odd,”  replied  Pamphilius,  “ that 
you  should  reason  so.  From  the  same  facts 
we  draw  opposite  conclusions.  We  say:  If 
grown-up  people  live  in  a worldly  manner,  this 
is  to  a certain  extent  excusable,  because  they 
are  spoiled  already.  But  children  ? That  is 
horrible  ! To  live  with  them  in  the  world  and 
expose  them  continually  to  its  temptations  and 
dangers ? ‘Woe  unto  the  world  because  of 
offences  ! for  it  must  needs  be  that  offences 
come ; but  woe  to  that  man  by  whom  the 
offence  cometh.’ 

“ These  are  the  words  of  our  Master,  and  I 
make  use  of  them  for  that  reason,  and  because 
they  are  the  expression  of  the  truth,  and  not 
merely  for  the  purpose  of  objecting;  for  it  is 
really  a fact  that  the  necessity  of  living  as  we 
live  results  mainly  from  the  circumstance  that 
there  are  children  in  our  midst,  tender  beings 


156 


WORK  WHILE  YE 


of  ■whom  it  has  been  said  : ‘ Except  ye  become 
as  little  children,  ye  shall  not  enter  into  the 
kingdom  of  heaven.’  ” 

“ But  how  can  a Christian  family  contrive  to 
get  along  without  definite  means  of  sub- 
sistence ? ” 

“ Means  of  subsistence,  according  to  our  be- 
lief, are  of  one  kind,  and  only  one  kind : work, 
for  the  benefit  of  others,  inspired  by  love. 
Your  means  of  livelihood,  on  the  contrary,  is 
violence,  which  vanishes  as  wealth  vanishes,  and 
then  nothing  remains  but  the  labor  and  love  of 
men.  We  start  with  the  idea  that  we  should 
hold  fast  by  that  which  is  the  foundation,  the 
basis  of  everything  else,  increasing  it  when  pos- 
sible. And  when  this  is  done,  the  family  lives 
and  even  thrives. 

“ No,”  continued  Pamphilius ; “if  I enter- 
tained any  doubts  about  the  truth  of  Christ’s 
teachings,  and  if  I hesitated  about  putting 
them  in  practice,  my  doubts  and  hesitations 
would  instantly  disappear  the  moment  I pict- 
ured to  myself  the  sad  fate  of  the  children 
who  are  brought  up  in  Paganism,  amid  the 


HAVE  THE  LIGHT. 


157 


surroundings  and  associations  in  which  you 
grew  up,  and  are  now  educating  your  children. 
No  matter  what  strenuous  efforts  we,  a small 
band  of  individuals,  make  to  render  life  com- 
fortable and  pleasant,  by  means  of  palaces, 
slaves,  and  the  imported  products  of  foreign 
climes,  the  lives  of  the  great  mass  of  the  peo- 
ple will  remain  what  they  were,  what  they  must 
be.  The  only  provision  for  these  lives  re- 
mains the  love  of  mankind  and  earnest  toil. 
We  are  desirous  of  freeing  ourselves  and  our 
friends  from  the  pressure  of  these  conditions, 
and  we  get  other  people  to  work  for  us,  not 
voluntarily,  out  of  love,  but  by  employing  vio- 
lence ; and,  strange  to  say,  the  better  we  seem 
to  provide  for  ourselves,  the  more  we  are  de- 
priving ourselves  of  the  only  true,  natural,  and 
enduring  provision  — love.  The  greater  the 
power  of  the  ruler,  the  less  he  is  loved. 

“ The  same  thing  holds  good  of  that  other 
provision — work.  The  more  a man  shirks  work 
and  accustoms  himself  to  luxury,  the  loss  capa- 
ble he  becomes  of  working,  and  the  more  he 
consequently  deprives  himself  of  the  true  and 


158 


WORK  WHILE  YE 


eternal  provision.  And  these  conditions  in 
which  people  place  their  children,  they  term 
making  provision  for  them  ! To  test  my  state- 
ment, take  your  son  and  mine,  and  send  them 
to  find  a road,  to  transmit  an  order,  or  to  tran- 
sact any  important  business,  and  note  which 
of  them  acquits  himself  more  satisfactorily  ; or 
propose  to  confide  them  to  a master  to  be  edu- 
cated, and  see  which  of  them  will  be  the  more 
willingly  received.  No ; never  again  utter  those 
terrible  words,  that  a Christian  life  is  possible 
only  for  those  who  are  childless.  On  the  con- 
trary, one  might  rather  say  that  to  lead  the  life 
of  a Pagan  is  excusable  onlv  in  those  who  are 
without  children.  But  woe  to  him  who  often d- 
eth  any  of  these  little  ones.” 

Julius  remained  silent. 

“ Yes,”  he  said,  after  a considerable  pause ; 
“ it  may  be  that  you  are  right.  But  their  edu- 
cation is  already  begun,  the  very  best  of 
masters  are  teaching  them.  Let  them  learn  all 
that  we  know ; that  can  surely  do  them  no 
harm.  There  is  plenty  of  time  yet,  both  for 
them  and  for  me.  They  will  be  at  liberty  to 


HAVE  THE  LIGHT. 


159 


embrace  your  faith  when  they  are  in  the  flower 
of  their  age  and  in  the  full  enjoyment  of  all 
their  faculties  — if  they  feel  so  disposed.  As 
for  me,  I can  do  so  when  I have  provided  for 
my  children,  set  them  standing  on  their  own 
feet,  so  to  say,  and  have  thus  become  free.” 

“ When  you  have  known  the  truth  you  will 
be  free,”  answered  Pamphilius.  “ Christ  con- 
fers perfect  liberty  at  once  ; the  world’s  teach- 
ings will  never  bestow  it.  Good-by  ! ” 

And  Pamphilius,  with  his  son,  departed. 

The  trial  of  the  prisoners  took  place  in  the 
presence  of  the  people,  and  Julius  saw  Pam- 
philius, and  noticed  how  he,  together  with  the 
other  Christians,  assisted  in  removing  the  bodies 
of  the  martyrs.  He  noticed  that ; but  fear  of 
offending  his  superiors  kept  him  from  ap- 
proaching his  friend,  or  inviting  him  to  his 
house. 


CHAPTER  X. 


Twelve  years  more  passed  away.  Julius’s 
wife  died.  His  time  was  filled  up  with  the  cares 
and  worry  inseparable  from  public  life,  and  in 
the  pursuit  of  power,  which  now  became  his  for 
passing  moment,  and  now  slipped  away  from 
his  grasp.  His  wealth  was  immense  and  he 
still  went  on  increasing  it. 

His  sons  had  meanwhile  grown  to  man’s 
estate  and  were  leading  — especially  the  second 
one  — a life  of  luxury  and  extravagance.  This 
young  man  had  made  considerable  holes  in  the 
vessel  in  which  his  father’s  riches  were  stored 
up,  and  they  leaked  out  with  greater  rapidity 
than  they  were  poured  in.  A struggle  was 
carried  on  between  Julius  and  his  sons  which 
was  in  all  respects  identical  with  that  which  had 


HAVE  THE  LIGHT. 


161 


been  waged  years  before  by  himself  and  bis 
father.  It  was  characterized  by  the  same  traits  : 
bitterness,  hatred,  jealousy.  Moreover,  about 
this  time  a new  viceroy  had  been  appointed,  who 
deprived  Julius  of  all  the  marks  of  imperial 
favor.  Julius  was  forsaken,  in  consequence, 
by  bis  former  flatterers,  and  was  now  in  expec- 
tation of  being  banished.  He  repaired  to  Rome 
in  order  to  offer  explanations,  with  a view  to 
recovering  his  lost  position,  but  be  was  not 
received  and  was  commanded  to  return  home. 

On  his  arrival  in  Tarsus  he  found  his  son 
banqueting  with  several  dissolute  young  men  in 
bis  house.  In  Cilicia  a rumor  had  been  circu- 
lated to  the  effect  that  Julius  was  dead,  and  his 
son  was  joyfully  celebrating  his  father’s  death. 
At  sight  of  this  Julius,  losing  all  control  over  his 
passion,  felled  his  son  to  the  ground,  left  him 
for  dead,  and  withdrew  to  the  apartment  of  his 
late  wife. 

In  his  wife’s  room  he  found  a scroll  contain- 
ing the  Gospel,  and  read  therein  the  words  : 
“ Come  unto  me,  all  ye  that  labor  and  are  heavy 
laden,  and  I will  give  you  rest.” 


162 


WORK  WHILE  YE 


“ Yes,”  exclaimed  Julius  to  himself ; “ He  has 
been  long  calling  me.  I did  not  believe  Him, 
was  disobedient  and  wicked  ; and  the  yoke  I 
bore  was  heavy,  the  burden  I carried  was  evil.” 

And  for  a Ions'  time  Julius  remained  sitting 
with  the  manuscript  spread  out  before  him  on 
his  knees,  meditating  upon  his  past  life,  and 
calling  to  mind  what  Pamphilius  on  various 
occasions  had  told  him. 

At  length  he  arose  and  went  to  his  son,  whom 
he  found  on  his  feet,  and  he  was  overjoyed  to 
think  that  he  had  inflicted  no  serious  harm  by 
the  blow. 

Without  addressing  a word  to  his  son.  Julius 
left  the  house,  walked  into  the  street,  and  took 
the  road  that  led  to  the  Christian  community. 

He  journeyed  on  the  whole  day  ; and,  when 
evening  came,  he  stopped  at  a villager’s  house, 
where  he  intended  to  pass  the  night.  In  the 
room  into  which  he  entered  there  was  a man 
stretched  out  on  a couch.  The  noise  of  foot- 
steps disturbed  him  and  he  raised  himself  up. 

Julius  recognized  the  physician. 

“ No,”  exclaimed  Julius  ; “ never  again  shall 


HAVE  THE  LIGHT. 


163 


you  dissuade  me  from  carrying  out  my  resolve. 
This  is  the  third  time  that  I am  hound  for  the 
same  destination,  and  I know  that  there,  and 
there  only,  I shall  find  peace  of  mind.” 

“ Where  ? ” asked  the  physician. 

“ Among  the  Christians.” 

“ Yes  ; you  may  possibly  find  peace  of  mind 
there,  but  you  will  certainly  not  be  doing  your 
duty.  You  lack  fortitude,  my  friend;  misfor- 
tunes subdue  you.  True  philosophers  never 
act  thus.  Disasters  and  reverses  are  but  the 
fire  that  tries  the  gold.  You  have  passed 
through  the  crucible ; and  now  that  your  services, 
which  might  prove  inestimable,  are  most  urgent- 
ly needed,  you  are  sneaking  away.  It  is  now 
that  you  should  test  others  and  yourself.  You 
have  acquired  true  wisdom,  and  it  is  your  duty 
to  make  use  of  it  for  the  good  of  the  common- 
wealth. What  would  become  of  the  citizens 
and  the  state,  if  those  who  have  obtained  a 
thorough  knowledge  of  men,  their  passions, 
motives,  and  the  conditions  of  their  life,  instead 
of  giving  the  benefit  of  their  knowledge  and 
experience  to  the  state,  were  to  bury  them  out 


164 


WORK  WHILE  YE 


of  sight  and  seek  repose  and  tranquillity  for 
themselves?  Your  wisdom  has  been  gained  in 
society,  and  it  is  your  duty  to  allow  society  to 
reap  the  benefits  of  it.” 

“ But  I possess  no  wisdom.  I am  a bundle 
of  errors.  True,  they  are  ancient,  hut  then 
antiquity  does  not  transform  errors  into  wis- 
dom ; age  and  putridity,  no  matter  what  pro- 
portions they  may  reach,  never  change  water 
into  wine.” 

And  having  said  this,  Julius  caught  up  his 
mantle,  quitted  the  room  and  the  house,  and 
without  resting  anywhere  continued  his  journey. 

The  next  evening,  as  the  long  shadows  had 
just  deepened  into  darkness,  he  reached  the 
town  of  the  Christians.  He  received  a very 
cordial  welcome,  notwithstanding  that  it  was 
not  known  that  he  was  the  personal  friend  of 
Pamphilius,  whom  they  all  loved  and  revered. 

At  table  Pamphilius  perceived  his  friend, 
and,  with  an  affable  smile,  ran  up  to  him,  and 
pressed  him  in  his  embrace. 

“Here  I am  at  last,”  exclaimed  Julius. 
“ Tell  me  what  I am  to  do ; I will  obey  you.” 


HAVE  THE  LIGHT 


1 65 


“ Don’t  worry  about  that/’  replied  Pamphil- 
ius ; “ let  us  go  together.”  And  Pamphilius 
led  Julius  into  the  house  that  was  prepared  for 
strangers  and  wayfarers,  pointed  to  the  couch 
there,  and  said:  “You  will  find  out  yourself 
in  what  way  you  may  be  useful  to  others,  as 
soon  as  you  have  looked  around  you  and  grown 
accustomed  to  our  mode  of  life.  But  in  order 
that  you  may  make  a profitable  use  of  your 
present  leisure,  I will  tell  you  what  you  might 
do  to-morrow  : in  our  gardens  the  brethren  are 
busy  gathering  in  the  vintage ; go  and  give 
them  what  assistance  you  can.  It  on  will  easily 
find  your  place  among  them.” 

Julius  went  to  the  vineyards  next  morning. 
The  first  was  a young  plantation  with  rich 
clusters  of  grapes  hanging  down  on  every  side. 
The  young  people  were  gathering  them  in,  and 
carrying  them  away.  All  the  work  was  por- 
tioned out  among  them,  and  Julius  went  from 
one  to  another,  anxious  to  discover  something 
to  do,  but  he  found  no  place  for  himself  there. 

He  penetrated  further,  and  came  into  a 
somewhat  older  plantation,  where  the  crop  wras 


166 


WORK  WHILE  YE 


considerably  less.  But  here,  too,  he  failed  to 
to  get  an  occupation : the  brethren  were  busy 
working’  in  pairs,  and  required  no  additional 
hands.  He  continued  his  search,  however,  and 
soon  found  himself  in  a very  old  vineyard.  It 
was  empty.  The  vinestalks  were  warped  and 
crooked,  and,  as  it  seemed  to  Julius,  wholly 
devoid  of  fruit. 

“ So  this  is  what  my  life  is,”  he  exclaimed 
to  himself,  as  he  looked  around.  “ Had  I 
come  hither  at  the  first  call,  my  life  would 
have  been  as  the  fruits  of  the  first  vineyard. 
Had  I come  at  the  second  call,  it  would  have 
been  like  those  of  the  older  plantation  ; hut 
now  my  life  is  as  these  useless,  weakly,  old 
vinestalks,  fit  only  to  be  thrown  into  the  fire.” 

And  Julius  was  terrified  at  what  he  had 
done,  and  at  the  thought  of  the  punishment 
that  awaited  him  for  having  wantonly  squan- 
dered his  whole  life. 

And  he  became  very  sad,  and  said  aloud : 
“ 1 am  now  fit  for  nothing;  there  is  now  no 
work  that  I can  do.”  And  he  did  not  rise  up 
from  his  place,  hut  wept  bitterly  over  the 


HAVE  THE  LIGHT 


167 


criminal  loss  of  that  which  he  knew  he  could 
never  more  bring  back. 

Suddenly  he  heard  the  voice  of  an  old  man 
calling  out  to  him.  “Work,  dear  brother/' 
said  the  voice.  Looking  round,  Julius  beheld 
a very  old  man  with  snow-white  hair,  doubled 
up  with  age,  whose  tottering  feet  scarcely  bore 
up  the  weight  of  his  body.  He  stood  beside  a 
vine,  and  was  gathering  the  rare,  sweet  grapes 
that  grew  here  and  there  upon  it.  Julius  went 
up  to  him. 

“Work,  dear  brother,”  he  said;  “work  is 
sweet.”  And  he  taught  him  how  to  look  for 
the  very  few  clusters  that  were  still  on  the 
stalks. 

Julius  set  to  work  to  do  as  he  had  been  told, 
and  having  found  some  bunches  of  grapes 
took  them  to  the  old  man  and  put  them  in  his 
basket. 

And  the  old  man  said  to  him  : “ Look  ! #In 
what  are  these  bunches  inferior  to  those  they 
are  gathering  in  the  other  plantations  ? ‘ W ork 
while  ye  have  the  light/  said  our  Teacher.  6 It 
is  the  will  of  Him  that  sent  me  that  whoso- 


168 


WORK  WHILE  YE 


ever  seeth  the  Son  and  believeth  in  Him,  has  life 
everlasting  and  I will  raise  him  up  on  the  last 
day.  For  God  did  not  send  His  Son  into  the 
world  to  judge  the  world,  but  that  the  world 
should  be  saved  through  Him.  He  who 
believes  in  Him  will  not  be  judged,  and  he 
who  does  not  believe,  is  judged  already,  be- 
cause he  did  not  believe  in  the  only-begotten 
Son  of  God.  The  judgment  consists  in  this, 
that  the  light  came  into  the  world,  but  men 
loved  darkness  better  than  the  light,  because 
their  deeds  are  evil.  For  every  one  that  doeth 
evil  hateth  the  light,  neither  cometh  to  the 
light,  lest  his  deeds  should  be  reproved.  But 
he  that  doeth  truth,  cometh  to  the  light,  that 
his  deeds  may  be  made  manifest,  that  they  are 
wrought  in  God.’ 

“ You  are  disheartened  and  downcast,  because 
you  have  not  done  more  than  you  have  actually 
accomplished.  Do  not  grieve,  my  son  ; for  we 
are  all  children  of  God,  and  his  servants.  We 
are  all  soldiers  of  His  army.  Do  you  think 
that  He  has  no  servants  hut  yourself  ? And 
suppose  you  had  devoted  yourself  to  His  ser- 


HAVE  THE  LIGHT. 


169 


vice  in  the  vigor  of  your  strength,  do  you 
imagine  that  you  would  have  accomplished  all 
that  He  requires,  that  you  would  have  done  for 
your  fellow-men  all  that  is  necessary,  in  order 
to  bring  about  His  kingdom  upon  earth  ? You 
say  that  you  would  have  accomplished  twice  as 
much  as  you  can  now  perform,  ten  times  as  much, 
a hundred  times  as  much.  If  you  realized  a 
myriad  times  more  than  all  mankind  combined, 
what  would  all  this  amount  to  in  the  work  of 
God  ? To  nothing.  The  work  of  God,  like 
God  Himself,  has  no  limits,  no  end.  God’s 
work  is  within  you.  Approach  it,  and  become 
not  a workman  but  a son,  and  you  will  be  a 
copartner  of  God  who  is  infinite,  and  a sharer 
in  His  work.  With  God  there  is  neither  little 
nor  great ; and  in  life  there  is  neither  little 
nor  great,  there  is  only  straight  or  crooked. 
Enter  on  the  straight  road  in  life  and  you  will 
be  with  God,  and  your  work  will  be  neither 
great  nor  little,  it  will  be  God’s  work.  Re- 
member that  there  is  more  joy  in  heaven  over 
one  sinner  that  repenteth,  than  over  ninety 
and  nine  just  persons.  The  world’s  ways,  and 


170 


HA  VE  THE  LIGHT 


all  that  you  have  neglected  to  do,  have  shown 
you  your  sin.  And  having  seen  your  sin,  you 
have  repented.  And  having  repented,  you 
have  found  the  right  road.  And  now  that  you 
are  on  the  right  road,  go  forwards  with  God ; 
think  no  more  of  the  past,  of  little  and  of 
great.  All  living  men  are  equal  before  God. 
There  is  one  God  and  one  life.” 

And  Julius  grew  calm  and  composed  again 
— obtaining  the  peace  of  mind  he  had  yearned 
for  ; and  he  manfully  set  himself  to  live  and 
to  work  to  the  utmost  of  his  power  for  the 
oood  of  his  fellow-men.  And  he  lived  thus 
joyfully  twenty  years,  his  soul  too  full  to  allow 
him  to  perceive  the  slow  approach  of  physical 
death. 


THE  END. 


JOHN  W.  LOVELL  COMPANY’S  PUBLICATIONS. 


IRucjbig  Ebition 

OF 

BOOKS  FOR  BOYS  AND  GIRLS. 

XXX  TJ&THATE D. 

Price,  75  Cents  a Volume. 


Abbott’s  Stories  for  Children.  By  Jacob  Abbott. 
Adventures  among  the  Indians. 

Adventures,  Forest  and  Frontier. 

Adventures  of  Famous  Travellers. 

Adventures  of  Famous  Sailors. 

Adventures  of  Bob  Boy,  The.  By  James  Grant. 

Afloat  in  the  Forest.  By  Capt.  Mayne  Beid. 

Alice’s  Adventures  in  Wonderland.  By  Lewis  Carroll 
Audubon  the  Naturalist.  By  Mrs.  Horace  St.  John. 
Aunt  Diana.  By  Bosa  Nouchette  Carey. 

Barbara’s  Triumph.  By  Mary  A.  Denison. 

Boy  Conqueror. 

Boy  Crusoes  ; or,  The  Young  Islanders. 

Boys’  and  Girls’  Story  Book. 

Boy  Hunters.  By  Capt.  Mayne  Beid. 

Boys  in  the  Forecastle,  The.  By  Geo.  H.  Coomerc 
Boys  of  the  Bible. 

Boy  Slaves.  By  Capt.  Mayne  Beid. 

Boy  Tar.  By  Capt.  Mayne  Beid. 

Bruin.  By  Capt.  Mayne  Beid. 

Bush  Boys.  By  Capt  Mayne  Beid. 

Cast  Up  by  the  Sea.  By  Sir  Samuel  Baker. 


JOHN  W.  LOVELL  COMPANY,  NEW  YOHK. 


JOHN  W.  LOVELL  COMPANY’S  PUBLICATIONS. 


IRugty?  Button— Continued. 


Cliff  Climbers.  By  Capt.  Mayne  Reid. 

Daniel  Boone,  Life  of. 

Children’s  Stories. 

Deep  Down.  By  Ballantyne. 

Desert  Home.  By  Capt.  Mayne  Reid, 

Dick  Cheveley.  By  W.  H.  G.  Kingston. 

Dick  Rodney.  By  J.  Grant. 

Eastern  Fairy  Legends,  Current  in  Southern  India. 
Edgeworth’s  Parents’  Assistant. 

Edgeworth’s  Moral  Tales. 

Edgeworth’s  Popular  Tales. 

Edgeworth’s  Classic  Tales. 

Eight  Years’  Wandering  in  Ceylon.  By  Sir  S.  Baker. 
Eric  Dane.  By  M.  White,  Jr. 

Erling  the  Bold.  By  R.  M.  Ballantyne. 

Esther.  By  Rosa  N.  Carey. 

Famous  Boys. 

Famous  Men. 

Fire  Brigade,  The.  By  R.  M.  Ballantyne. 

Flag  of  Distress.  By  Capt.  Mayne  Reid. 

Flat  Iron  for  a Farthing,  A.  By  Mrs.  Ewing. 

Forest  Exiles.  By  Capt.  Mayne  Reid. 

Fort  Pillow  to  the  End.  By  WTilliam  M.  Thayer. 

Fort  Sumter  to  Roanoke  Island.  By  Wm.  M.  Thayer. 
Frank  Wildman’s  Adventures  on  Land  and  Water.  By 
Frederick  Gerstaecker. 

Gascoyne.  By  R.  M.  Ballantyne. 

German  Fairy  Tales.  Translated  by  Chas.  A.  Dana. 
Gilbert  the  Trapper.  By  Capt.  C.  M.  Ashley. 

Giraffe  Hunters.  By  Capt.  Mayne  Reid. 

Golden  Magnet,  The.  By  G.  M.  Fenn. 

Gracie  Goodwin.  A Story  for  Girls. 

Grandfather’s  Chair.  By  Nathaniel  Hawthorne. 

Grey  Hawk.  By  James  Macaulay. 

Harlie’s  Letters.  By  Jacob  Abbott. 

Hauff's  Fairy  Tales. 


JOHN  W.  LOVELL  COMPANY,  NEW  YORK. 


JOHN  W.  LOVELL  COMPANY’S  PUBLICATIONS. 


iSCntton— Continued 


In  Southern  Seas.  By  Frank  H.  Converse. 

In  the  Wilds  of  New  Mexico.  By  G.  M.  Fenn. 

Jackanapes  and  Other  Tales.  By  Mrs.  Ewing. 

Jack  Wheeler.  By  Capt.  David  Southwick. 

Land  of  Mystery.  By  B.  H.  Jayne. 

Luke  Bennet’s  Hide  Out.  By  Capt.  C.  B.  Ashley. 
Magician’s  Show-box,  The,  and  Other  Stories. 

Mark  Sea  worth.  By  W.  H.  G.  Kingston. 

Merle’s  Crusade.  By  Bosa  N.  Carey. 

Midshipman,  The.  By  W.  H.  G.  Kingston. 

Mountain  Cave,  The.  By  Geo.  H.  Coomer. 

Murfreesboro  to  Fort  Pillow.  By  William  M.  Thayer. 
Mystery  of  a Diamond,  The.  By  Frank  H.  Converse. 
Nature’s  Young  Nobleman.  By  Brooks  McCormick. 
Number  91.  By  Arthur  Lee  Putnam. 

Ocean  Waifs.  By  Capt.  Mayne  Beid. 

Odd  People.  By  Capt.  Mayne  Beid. 

Old  Merry’s  Travels  on  the  Continent. 

On  the  Trail  of  Geronimo.  By  B.  H.  Jayne. 

Oriental  Fairy  Tales. 

Our  Young  Soldiers.  By  Lieut.  W.  B.  Hamilton. 

Paul  Blake.  Adventures  of  a Boy  in  the  Island  of  Cor- 
sica, etc. 

Perils  of  the  Jungle.  By  Lieut.  B.  H.  Jayne. 

Peter  the  Whaler.  By  W.  H.  G.  Kingston. 

Pirate  Island.  By  Harry  Collin gwood. 

Plant  Hunters.  By  Capt.  Mayne  Beid. 

Popular  Natural  History. 

Ban  Away  to  Sea.  By  Capt.  Mayne  Beid. 

Bed  Eric,  The.  By  B.  M.  Ballantyne. 

Bifle  and  Hound  in  Ceylon,  The.  By  Sir  Samuel  Baker. 
Boanoke  Island  to  Murfreesboro.  By  Wm.  M.  Thayer. 
Bobin  Hood  and  His  Merry  Forresters. 

Bound  the  World.  By  W.  H.  G.  Kingston. 

Salt  Water.  By  W.  H.  G.  Kingston. 

Sandford  and  Merton. 


JOHN  W.  LOVELL  COMPANY,  NEW  YORK. 


JOHN  W.  LOVELL  COMPANY’S  PUBLICATIONS. 


BDttion— Continued. 


School  Life  ; or,  Three  Tears  at  Wolverton. 

Smuggler’s  Cave,  The.  By  Annie  Ashmore, 

Spanish  Fairy  Tales. 

Stories  about  Animals.  By  Capt.  Mayne  Reid. 

Stories  from  American  History. 

Through  the  Looking  Glass.  By  Lewis  Carroll. 

Tiger  Prince,  The.  By  "William  Dalton. 

Tom  Tracy.  By  Arthur  Lee  Putnam. 

Twice  Told  Tales.  By  Nathaniel  Hawthorne. 

Voyage  to  the  Gold  Coast,  A.  By  Frank  H.  Converse. 
War  Tiger,  The.  By  William  Dalton. 

White  Elephant,  The.  By  William  Dalton. 

White  Mustang,  The.  By  R.  H.  Jayne. 

Wild  Sports  in  the  Far  West.  By  Frederick  Gerstaecker. 
Wolf  Boy  in  China,  The.  By  William  Dalton. 

Wonders  of  the  Great  Deep.  By  P.  H.  Gosse. 

Young  Acrobat.  By  Horatio  Alger. 

Young  Adventurer. 

Young  Foresters,  The,  and  Other  Tales. 

Young  Folks’  Book  of  Birds. 

Young  Folks’  Book  of  Book. 

Young  Folks’  History  of  France.  By  C.  M.  Yonge. 

Young  Folks’  History  of  Germany.  By  C.  M.  Yonge. 
Young  Folks’  History  of  Greece. 

Young  Folks’  History  of  Rome. 

Young  Voyagers.  By  Capt.  Mayne  Reid. 

Young  Yagers.  By  Capt.  Mayne  Reid. 

Young  Folks’  Historical  Tales.  By  William  and  Robert 
Chambers. 

Young  Folks’  Tales  of  Adventures.  By  William  and  Rob- 
ert Chambers. 

Young  Folks’  Popular  Tales.  By  William  and  Robert 
Chambers. 

Young  Folks’  Scottish  Tales.  By  William  and  Robert 
Chambers. 

Toung  Folks’  Natural  History. 


JOHN  W.  LOVELL  COMPANY,  NEW  YORK. 


(5oob  JSooks  for  IBoyz  anb  (Stria. 

Handsomely  Bound  in  Cloth. 


iBallantpne  (1ft.  /ID.),  a Library  of  Story  and  Advent- 
ure. Printed  from  large,  clear  type ; handsomely 
Illustrated.  4 vols.,  12 mo.  Cloth,  black  and  gold  ; 
boxed,  $3.00. 

1.  The  Red  Eric,  or  the  Whaler’s  Last  Cruise. 

2.  Erling  the  Bold  ; a Tale  of  the  Norse  Sea  Kings. 

8.  The  Fire  Brigade,  or  Fighting  the  Flames. 

4.  Deep  Down  ; a Tale  of  the  Cornish  Mines. 

5.  Gascoyne,  the  Sandal  Wood  Trader. 

•Kingston  (Militant  lb.  6.).  A Library  of  Adventure. 
Printed  from  large,  clear  type;  handsomely  Illustrated. 
6 vols.,  12mo.  Cloth,  black  and  gold,  $4.50. 

1.  Mark  Seaworth,  a Tale  of  the  Indian  Ocean. 

2.  Bound  the  World. 

3.  Salt  Water,  or  the  Sea  Life  and  Adventures  of  Neil 

D’Arcy. 

4.  Peter  the  Whaler  ; his  Early  Life  and  Adventures. 

5.  The  Midshipman,  Marmaduke  Merry. 

6.  The  Young  Foresters,  and  Other  Tales. 

Greenwoods  (Grace)  Stories*  New  edition.  The 

volumes  are  finely  printed  on  heavy  paper,  Illustrated, 
handsomely  bound  in  cloth,  with  ink  and  gold  stamp- 
ing. 8 vols.,  Library  cloth,  $4.75.  4 vols.,  Popular 

cloth,  $2.50. 

1.  Stories  for  Home  Folks  ; Stories  and  Sights  of  France 

and  Italy. 

2.  Stories  from  Famous  Ballads  ; History  of  My  Pets  ; 

Recollections  of  My  Childhood. 

3.  Stories  of  Many  Lands  ; Stories  and  Legends  of  Travel 

and  History. 

4.  Merrie  England  ; Bonnie  Scotland. 


JOHN  W.  LOVELL  COMPANY,  NEW  YORK. 


<5ooD  :f6oofc0  tor  JBoes  anD  <3irls— Continues. 


BraWan  1Rtgbts'  Entertainments  The  Thousand 

and  One  Nights.  Translated  from  the  Arabic.  New 

plates,  large,  clear  type.  1 vol.,  12mo.  Illustrated. 

Cloth,  black  and  gold.  Oxford  Edition,  50  cents. 

Generations  of  wise  fathers  and  mothers  have  thor- 
oughly proved  the  high  educational  value  of  the  Arabian 
Nights  as  a book  of  amusing  stories  for  children.  They 
stimulate  young  minds  and  create  a taste  and  desire  for 
reading  at  a time  when  almost  all  other  forms  of  literature 
would  be  irksome  and  uninstructive. 

CMlfc'S  IbiStOtE  of  England  By  Charles  Dickens. 

A New  Edition  for  the  use  of  schools.  With  numerous 

Illustrations.  Printed  from  large  type.  1 vol.,  12mo. 

Cloth,  black  and  gold.  Oxford  Edition,  50  cents. 

Charles  Dickens  wrote  the  Child’s  History  of  England 
for  his  own  children,  because,  as  he  himself  said,  he  could 
find  nothing  in  the  whole  line  of  English  histories  just 
suitable  for  them,  at  a time  when  they  were  beginning  to 
read  with  interest  and  profit,  but  not  sufficiently  advanced 
to  take  up  the  great  standard  authors.  It  was  a labor  of 
love,  and  has  been  well  appreciated  by  the  multitude  of 
young  people  who  have  gained  their  first  knowledge  of 
history  from  this  delightful  little  volume.  It  is  written  in 
the  most  pure  and  simple  language,  and  has  for  young 
readers  all  the  picturesque  and  vivid  interest  that  one  of 
the  author’s  novels  possesses  for  the  older  ones.  All  the 
great  characters  of  English  history  become  as  familiar  and 
produce  as  permanent  impressions,  as  the  heroes  of  the 
Arabian  Nights  and  of  the  other  favorite  books  of  child- 
hood. It  is  not  only  indispensable  in  every  household 
where  any  care  at  all  is  bestowed  upon  the  education  of 
children,  but  it  is  also  one  of  the  best  brief  and  compen- 
dious histories  of  England  for  all  classes  of  readers. 

O 


JOHN  W.  LOVELL  COMPANY,  NEW  YORK. 


LOVELL’S 

ILLUSTRATED 

SERIES. 

ISSUED  MONTHLY. 


Daintily  Illustrated  Works,  Suitable  for  Gifts. 


1.  An  I.  D.  B.  in  South  Africa.  By  Mrs.  Louise 


Vescelius  Sheldon 50 

2.  Here  and  There  in  Yucatan.  By  Alice  D.  Le 

Plongeon 50 

3.  Henrietta  By  Anna  D.  Page,  from  the  French 

of  Leon  de  Tinseau 50 


Any  of  the  above  sent  postpaid,  on  receipt  of  price,  by  the  publishers, 

UNITED  STATES  BOOK  COMPANY, 

SUCCESSORS  TO 

JOHN  W.  LOVELL  COMPANY, 

142  TO  150  WORTH  STREET,  NEW  YORK. 


